


Brothers

by DragonSoulWorld



Category: Numb3rs (TV)
Genre: Brotherly Bonding, Brotherly Love, Brothers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hospital, Hurt Charlie Eppes, Hurt/Comfort, Protective Don Eppes, Protective Older Brothers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:28:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 28,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28612845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSoulWorld/pseuds/DragonSoulWorld
Summary: Charlie is sick and overworked, then he crashes his bike and ends up badly injured. When Don finds out he gets very worried, and helps to care for Charlie as he gets better. Charlie's injury drags up issues from the past, that Charlie and Don have to overcome to become stronger brothers. HurtCharlie! ProtectiveDon! Set early season 2. Just brotherly fluff.
Comments: 14
Kudos: 16





	1. Prologue

_"_ _NO!" A six year old Charlie Eppes bolted upright in bed, breathing fast and sweating. He clawed at the duvet that had wrapped around his body, like it was trapping him._

_He just had a really scary nightmare about a monster that had attacked him from under his bed._

_Trembling, he wrapped his arms around his body, looking around his pitch black room petrified._

_Too scared to move, but also too scared to stay._

_Thunder rumbled loudly and angrily from outside as lightning crackled across the sky, the flashes illuminating his room briefly making everything have bigger shadows and appear more scary. Like there were monsters everywhere._

_A large looming shadow appeared on his wall, made up from his stuff but to Charlie it looked like his monster._

_Rain attacked his window, making it seem like it was trying to get in to get him._

_Whimpering, Charlie clapped his hands over his ears, snapping his eyes closed and trying to block out the sound and lights of the storm._

_He hated storms. They were just too loud and too chaotic. They made it impossible for him to concentrate or think._

_There was no control or order to them. It was just chaos..._

_Another lightning flash accompanied by an even bigger rumble had everything in his room vibrating, including his bed. As a result, he felt it his entire body making him throw the cover over his head and trembled in terror._

_He wanted his mom, and his dad. But the last time he had gone to them, they had just put him back to bed and told him to go to sleep. That there were no monsters. He missed when Don used to check his room for monsters after he had a nightmare. It made him feel safe, and comforted knowing his brother didn't think he was crazy._

_But now Don was older, he started to pull away from Charlie. Wanting to play with his friends and not with him. When he last went to Don for a nightmare, Don had snapped at him for waking him up and told him to go back to sleep and stop being a baby._

_He wasn't a baby! He didn't need Don or his parents. He could handle himself._

_He could be brave._

_The wind suddenly picked up outside, creating a loud whistling sound outside and the windows rattled._

_Creaking echoed throughout the house as the heating pipes shifted. But to Charlie it sounded like a monster was coming for him._

_Charlie couldn't take it anymore. And he fled._

0o0oNumb3rs0o0o0o0

_Ten year old Don Eppes, stumbled towards the bathroom, rubbing his eyes. The storm had woken him up, and now he released he needed to pee._

_Half asleep he entered the bathroom and shut the door. Flipping the light on, he immediate heard a cry of fear and a whimper._

_It made him jump, and he whipped around startled. Yanking the shower curtain back he reeled back shocked._

_"_ _Charlie?!" Don mumbled staring at his little brother curled up in the bathtub, lying on a pillow holding a flashlight with it turned on._

_"_ _D-Don?" Charlie said in a small voice, shifting to sit up with large scared brown eyes._

_Don's heart broke seeing him shaking._

_"_ _What's up buddy? What are you doing?"_

_"_ _H-hiding. From the monster."_

_Don sighed letting his hand drop from the shower curtain; "Another nightmare?" He asked softly, feeling bad for his little brother. He himself had his fair share of nightmares, but Charlie seemed to be plagued with a lot of nightmares, bad ones. Especially, when there were storms._

_Charlie nodded, and there was immediately a loud clap of lightning making him flinch and hug himself._

_Don paced on the spot debating his options. He wasn't good with this stuff. But this was his little brother, he wasn't going to just leave him here like this._

_"_ _I'll get mom and dad."_

_"_ _NO!" Charlie snapped and then winced looking fearfully towards the door, worried he would wake up his parents; "No please..."_

_"_ _Why not?" Don frowned confused._

_Charlie looked away; "M'not a baby."_

_"_ _What? Chuck I don't..."_

_"_ _Mom and dad don't believe me, and you think I'm just a baby. But I'm not!"_

_Don felt terrible. He had forgotten how much his little brother needed him. And he had been the one to call Charlie a baby when Charlie last woke him up._

_"_ _I know you're not buddy. I don't think that. I didn't mean it." Don paused thinking quick; "Hey I'll tell you what why don't I check your room for that monster? Tell it to beat it!"_

_"_ _No Don wait!" Charlie lashed out grabbing Don's wrist; "Please don't go." Charlie begged._

_Now Don was truly confused._

_"_ _Why not? I'll protect you. I promise."_

_"_ _I don't want you to get hurt." Charlie whispered and Don faltered. Charlie sounded so sincere like he really thought there was a monster going to hurt him, and he looked so small and fragile. It may be silly to Don, but it was very serious to Charlie._

_"_ _Alright buddy." Don said softly; "Then how about you come sleep in my room? I promise there's no monsters. Completely safe."_

_Charlie seemed to pause and consider that for a moment._

_The storm was getting louder, more rumbling and it made Charlie curl up on himself even more._

_"_ _No no no. Not safe. Too loud." Charlie merely murmured shifting to lie back in the tub covering his ears._

_Don looked towards his room and then at Charlie, torn. He could just go back to sleep and leave Charlie, but Don knew that would never happen. He would always do whatever it took for his brother._

_An idea hit Don and he clicked his fingers, rushing back into his bedroom. He scrambled to look at his books. Finally, finding the one he wanted and ran back into the bathroom. Leaving the light on, Don headed to the tub, book under his arm._

_"_ _Budge up Chuck."_

_Opening one eye, Charlie was surprised to see that Don was already climbing into the tub with him._

_Quickly moving to sit up, Charlie rubbed his hand over his eyes to remove the tears; "What are you doing?"_

_"_ _Well if you won't get out of the tub, I'll have to get in." Don said simply as he squatted down beside Charlie, bumping his shoulder and smiling._

_"_ _Why?"_

_"_ _Because your my brother. Now here." Don handed Charlie a large book._

_Charlie frowned as it looked at it; "Aquatic life? What is this?"_

_"_ _Well you know how much you like math and reading right?" Don opened the book to a random page; "I got this book from school for a science project. It's got all this information about different fish, their length, size, number of teeth and so on..." He shrugged; "Thought you might find it interesting."_

_Charlie slowly started to peruse the book, reading over the facts. Don immediately smiled watching as Charlie started to relax. His focus shifting from the storm to the book._

_"_ _Thanks Don." Charlie murmured turning to face him with a small smile. There was more Charlie meant to that thank you, and Don knew it._

_"_ _Of course Chuck." Don reached over and ruffled Charlie's hair fondly; "I'll always be here for you little brother. For whatever you need."_

_"_ _Ok." Charlie turned back to his book, muttering; "Don't call me Chuck."_

_Don just chuckled._

_Not long later, Don was dozing, having started to fall asleep watching Charlie read. But he was woken as he felt Charlie shifting more against him. He paused to peer down and saw Charlie's eyes were closed. His hands still holding the book, fast asleep._

_Merely smiling, Don put his arm around Charlie and closed his eyes. Him too falling asleep mere moments later._

_And when their mom and dad found them that way in the morning, they only smiled._


	2. Chapter 2

_Present day.._

Twenty Nine year old Charlie was not having the greatest week.

He was slammed.

It was like LA was suddenly on a crime spree. With a murder case and a robbery case that Don was insisting Charlie's help on. Which on top of his midterm papers he had to check and grade, and his lectures and own research, it was like he didn't have a second to breathe, let alone sleep or eat.

Currently, in his office at CalSci, Charlie was bustling between writing on three chalkboards, on three different equations running through his head.

He paused for a moment, briefly turning to grab his cup of coffee and take a sip. Grimacing at the sudden cold and bitter taste, he realised it had been sitting around for a while. It was probably his 10th cup just this morning, and he needed to make some more. But he'd do it later.

His throat was killing him, every time he swallowed it felt like he was swallowing knives. It was so dry, he had to keep drinking. Hence the coffee, but no matter how much he drunk it didn't help at all.

It was lucky he wasn't very hungry, because he knew he wouldn't be able to swallow it anyway. The idea of eating just made him feel sick anyway.

Rubbing a hand through his wild curls, he scratched the back of his head. Taking a moment to run his eyes over his equations making sure everything was correct.

He let out a few small coughs and winced at the pain in his throat, before letting out a deep shiver. He knew he probably had the flu. The last few days he'd been feeling rough. With the nausea, sore throat, cough, runny nose, feeling suddenly hot and cold, and aching limbs. All symptoms pointing to the flu. It really sucked.

Wiping a hand over his head, he found a layer of sweat. Charlie simply wiped it off and got back to work.

It was a little more difficult to think with the flu. The flu germs in his body interfering with the working of his brain. But it was only the flu, Charlie wasn't going to let it ruin his work. It was too important.

A knock sounded at his door as his father walked in.

"Charlie?"

Charlie didn't hear him at first, muttering to himself as he walked between the board and carried on writing.

"Charlie?" Alan said louder as he approached.

Suddenly, it clicked that he was being spoken to and Charlie whipped around startled; "Oh dad hi." Charlie smiled at him briefly, before turning back to add a few more notes to his chalkboard; "What's up?"

"Oh er nothing." Alan said taking in Charlie's appearance and the office. Seeing Charlie's rumpled clothes, wild hair, ten empty coffee cups and a half eaten sandwich, then the stacks of papers, books all over the palace and screwed up bits of paper. It was a mess; "I just came to check on you. You didn't come home last night."

"Hmm." Charlie frowned as he looked at his dad again and then out the window, squinting his eyes at the sudden sunlight coming in; "Oh it's morning." Chuckling, Charlie rubbed his eyes; "I didn't even realise."

"You've been here all night." Alan deduced; "Working."

"Yeah well, Don need's my help on a couple of cases, and I also got midterms. You know..."

Alan's jaw hardened as he looked at Charlie again, noticing the bags under his eyes; "Did you even sleep? Or eat anything? Anything nutritional."

"I've uh been a little busy dad. But I will I swear." The truth was Charlie had tried to sleep a number of times at his office, and when he had popped home a few times. But it was like he just couldn't shut his mind off, and couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep. So in the end he gave up.

"Well why don't you come back to the house? Get a change of clothes, eat something and take a nap. This can wait."

Charlie paused looking down at his clothes realising he was wearing the same clothes as yesterday.

Then he looked at his chalkboards hesitating. He knew if he headed home he'd be gone atleast a few hours and that would really interrupt the flow he had got going for his work. He could lose his train of thought and impeded his work. It wasn't like he was going to sleep or keep anything down anyway.

"Oh um you know what. I'll just grab some food here from the cafeteria. And I think I've got some change of clothes somewhere. But I'll um see you later?" He briefly glanced at his dad before turning back to his work, carrying on writing.

"Charlie." Alan sighed; "Look I'm worried. I've barely seen you the last week, you're hear working all hours. Coming into the house in the middle of the night, barely sleeping, and barely eating. You need to take better care of yourself Charlie, and working yourself into the ground isn't helping."

"I'm fine dad." Charlie said distractedly, gulping and wincing before letting out a couple of sneezes and coughs. He groaned a little shaking his head.

"You've got the flu Charlie." Alan persisted.

"So?"

"So. That's a sign from your body that you need some rest. This can wait."

"No it can't."

"Charlie." Alan grabbed Charlie's arm to stop him from writing, getting agitated now; "You need to take a break."

"Dad." Charlie snapped glaring at him; "I can't take a break. Don needs this done. This is important!"

Alan was getting even more concerned now. This was unlike Charlie and he didn't like it. It was as if Charlie was getting defensive.

"I never said it wasn't important Charlie, but your health is important. You are more important."

"Yeah well I can sleep for a week when this is done. But until then, I need to keep working." He shrugged Alan off, turning to pick up a notebook and turned to the chalkboard. Already engrossed back into his work.

Sighing, Alan narrowed his eyes before he turned and stormed out, already knowing his next destination.

0o0o0o0oNumb3rs0o0o0o0o0

"...Ok get me phone records and bank records, whatever you can." Don said to Megan as they were looking over some files on their latest case, and their suspects.

The FBI office was bustling and busier than usual, with their larger than normal caseload. Usually, they did one case at a time, but with multiple crimes going on, they had to multitask.

"Donnie!"

Don paused for a moment spotting his dad walking over from the elevator. Frowning at him for a moment, surprised at his presence. His father never came to the FBI. Unless something was wrong. Don hesitated before turning back to Megan.

"Let me know when you have something."

Megan rushed off and Don turned back to his dad as he reached him.

"Dad, hi what you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you."

"Yeah well you're going to have to make it quick, we're pretty busy." Don said already turning to go back to his desk grabbing some more files.

"Yeah I know. I spoke to Charlie. You got him working on two different cases."

"So?"

"So?" Alan repeated in a dangerous tone that made Don turn to him curiously.

"Dad. Charlie works on a lot of cases for us. Sometimes they overlap. I don't understand what you're trying to say."

"Have you even seen Charlie lately?"

Don rubbed a hand over his face tiredly; "He came by the office yesterday for an update. Why?"

"Did you notice anything strange about him?"

"Strange how?"

"I think he's sick Don. The flu. He's had a cough the last few days, and he looks pale and shivery. He doesn't seem himself, and he's been working almost non-stop all week on your cases. Staying at CalSci all night, not eating or sleeping. He's exhausted Donnie."

"Hey!" Don said defensively; "That's not my fault. He's a grown man dad, he needs to learn to take care of himself. I can't hold his hand all the time, I have work to do too you know."

Don turned away to carry on working but Alan just glared at him.

"Donnie! Dammit you need to take this seriously." Alan snapped causing a few people to stop and stare. Don turned to his dad, before looking around, and ushering his dad into the break room.

"Ok dad I get you're worried about Charlie, but what do you want me to do? We're all slammed here. I've been working non stop too. It's just something that come with the territory."

"That's the problem. This life, it isn't Charlie's life."

"Dad. Don't start." Don sighed tiredly; "Look, if Charlie wasn't up for this he could say no, I'm not going to force him to help. But I will press him for quicker results when an agent dies. Charlie can help, and I need it right now."

"You chose this life Don, Charlie didn't. But he can't exactly say no to his big brother."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"All he's ever wanted was to make you proud Don. He'll do whatever you ask of him."

"So what you think this is my fault? That I'm taking advantage of him?"

"No of course not. I'm just saying this is your job, your life. Charlie already has a job, and busy with work at the school. And then helping you, it's like he's got two jobs and you know Charlie. When he's working he gets so wrapped up he doesn't stop to rest or eat. Now you're right Charlie is a grown man, and you have certain responsibilities here, but I'm just asking as his brother. Could you check in on him? He'll listen to you."

Don sighed rubbing a hand over his face, knowing he could never say no when it came to his dad asking him to look out for Charlie. As kids, at high school mom and dad had made him watch out for Charlie.

"Alright fine. Look when I get a break here, I'll go see him. Ok?"

"Thank you Donnie."

"Yeah sure whatever." Don mumbled, putting his hands on his hips.

Alan turned to leave before turning back to Don softening; "Don?"

"Yeah dad?"

"I am really proud of you. What you do here. And I'm happy to see you and Charlie working together."

That caught Don off guard, and he was left momentarily speechless; "Thanks dad."

Alan quietly left and for a moment Don was left to reel with what his dad said.

As his anger diminished, he felt guilty.

It was true that maybe he had been a little harsh on Charlie. It was just with his job, he had to be tough and emotionless when it came to getting things done. It was necessary to doing whatever it takes to get the bad guys.

But he sometimes forgot that Charlie wasn't an agent. He was a civilian. And he already had another job. Charlie was helping Don on the side. On top of doing his job at CalSci.

Usually Charlie helped on one case at a time, and that required a lot of work. Two cases probably was a lot of workload for Charlie. Maybe too much.

And dad was right. Don knew how Charlie didn't always look out for himself when he got lost in the math.

Charlie was his responsibility when he was working here.

Don had just been so caught up in his own work, so desperate to catch the guys who killed one of their agents, he hadn't given much thought to Charlie. He hadn't seen Charlie since yesterday, or heard from him. Maybe he needed to check in on him. Make sure he was ok. And well he needed an update anyway. Maybe he'd take Charlie to lunch, give him a break. Make sure he was eating.

He needed to be a better brother.


	3. Chapter 3

It was raining pretty heavily when Don finally managed to escape from the office for lunch. As he was driving to Charlie's office, he considered for a moment heading back. It wasn't really great weather to be going out in, and if Charlie was sick...

That gave Don pause, as he thought about Charlie being sick. His gut tightened.

When they were kids, a few times Charlie had gotten sick. And it had been pretty bad. When Charlie got sick, he really got sick. Don had been pretty worried, and felt useless just watching Charlie getting sicker and sicker, and unable to do anything to help.

If Charlie was sick...Don just prayed it didn't get as bad as it did before.

0o0oo0oNumb3rs0o0oo0o0

"Charlie?" Don called as he knocked on his office door, pushing it open and peering in.

His eyes scanned the ever messy office before landing on Charlie. For some reason it seemed the office was messier than usual. There was a chair in the middle of the floor, stacked high with books, and there were more book piles scattered all over the floor, intermixed with crumpled bits of paper, empty coffee cups and pencils.

Holding a notepad in one hand, Charlie was muttering to himself as he gestured at a chalkboard with his other hand, holding a piece of chalk.

"Hey buddy. Just came to check how it was going." Don said cautiously moving around the stacks of books to his brother.

Charlie turned to him finally and Don froze. Immediately noting the bloodshot eyes and pale face. Then his crumbled appearance. Now he knew what is dad was talking about.

"Don!" Charlie smiled, but it was strained and his voice sounded raspier than usual.

Clearing his throat, Charlie added; "Good you're here! I have something for you!"

He scrambled to his desk, rifling through stacks of papers and notebooks, sending some to the floor, and almost knocking over a stack of books.

"Woah." Don said quickly grabbing the stack before it fell; "Got a lot of work to do huh?"

"Hmm." Charlie looked at him briefly before looking back down; "Oh yeah. I've got midterm papers to grade." He said distractedly before pulling out a stack of rumpled papers; "Ah here it is. Ok so.." He rushed to the chalkboard coughing but didn't seem fazed by it. It made Don frown deeper though.

"I've made great progress on your shooting case. I've created a scatter graph analysis to pinpoint the places he most likely visits."

"Ok great that's great buddy thanks." Don said softly, narrowing his eyes at the room and then at Charlie. Instantly feeling guilty; "Hey I was just going to get some lunch. How about you join me? Tell me about what you found."

"Oh no no." Charlie said quickly, shaking his head as he backed away letting out a few coughs, feeling sick just imagining food right now; "I...I have to continue working. I'm I'm making headway on your um robbery ccase but I've hit a problem in the equation and I need to keep working on it." Charlie rambled as he gestured at another chalkboard.

Don immediately noted how Charlie sounded strange, slurring slightly and he appeared to be shaking. That cough didn't sound good either, he really was sick.

Something was definitely not right.

Charlie quickly turned away, closing his eyes for a moment to try and stop the dizziness. The pounding in his head was getting worse and he was getting frustrated. It was seriously impending his work, and because of that he couldn't finish this last equation. He kept making mistakes and was getting mad at himself.

His body was hungry, he knew that. But he was also really nauseas. And he knew if he stopped and got lunch, he might throw up and maybe pass out. He was exhausted. He had to keep going.

"Ok I get that. But maybe taking a break and coming back will fresh eyes will help."

Charlie just ignored him and Don didn't like it.

"Charlie." Don started heading back over to him; "Listen..."

Suddenly Don's phone rang. He groaned closing his eyes as he pulled it out. It was the office. He hesitated looking at Charlie. Knowing his brother needed him right now. But he still had to do his job. The call could be important, someone's life could be in danger.

"One second buddy ok." Don said quickly, moving away to take the call.

"Epps." It was Megan.

They'd just found an abandoned van by the robbers which had been torched.

"Ok yeah I'm on my way now." Don snapped the phone closed and grimaced. Not great timing. He himself wouldn't even be able to get any lunch until later.

He was torn. He knew Charlie really needed to rest, and that they needed to talk. But now just wasn't the time.

"Listen Charlie I got to go. Why don't you let me know when you're done and I'll give you a ride home later ok?"

Again Charlie didn't even respond, like he hadn't heard him.

Don really didn't want to leave Charlie like this, but he had no choice.

Every step he took away from Charlie, just made the knot in his stomach get worse. Like he knew he was making a big mistake.

0o0o0oNumb3rs0o0oo0o0

Finally, a few hours later Charlie finally caught a break on his equation and was able to finish it.

He immediately called Don to let him know, and Don was very pleased. Already preparing the raid for the shooter, Don thanked him and said he'd give Charlie a ride home later around 8pm. Charlie tried to insist he needed to finish working and he was fine, but Don said it wasn't up for discussion and that Charlie had to be ready by 8pm for a ride home for dinner with dad.

It wasn't ideal, but Charlie supposed he had finished one case now, so could carry on working on the second case at home in the garage, then come back here to finish grading papers. So it was fine.

He just had to get as much work done as he could in the afternoon.

Amita and Larry came by at some point, atleast Charlie thought they did. But the hours all sort of blurred together, and his mind was getting pretty foggy. They tried to help and talk to him, but because he didn't quite respond they left him to it.

He was secretly relieved. His flu symptoms were getting worse. So that when he moved around his office, his vision blurred for a moment and he stumbled into his desk, knocking some books to the ground. So overwhelmed with a wave of nausea, he couldn't stop it this time.

Grabbing his trashcan he was able to just about throw up in it.

It continued for a few moments, and by the time Charlie had finished, he had nothing left to throw up he was just retching for a few moments. It soon turned into a coughing fit that had sweat rolling down his face and down the back of his neck. His throat hurt so much, he kept swallowing trying to make it stop, but his mouth was so dry there was nothing there to help.

He was soon trembling so hard, he could barely keep hold of the trashcan.

**Crash**

Flinching, Charlie snapped his eyes open, brow furrowing as he found his head was lying on his desk.

When he had laid his head down? Had he gone to sleep? He didn't even remember.

Lifting his head, he limply pulled a piece of paper off that had stuck to his face and looked around blankly.

It took him a moment to comprehend he was still in his office, and it was now dark outside.

Turning his wrist over he looked at his watch. Seeing it was ten to 8.

8 o clock.

There was something about that time that seemed significant to Charlie. But he couldn't figure out why.

Angry scrubbing a hand over his face, he wished his brain would just cooperate for a moment.

Then he paused as he looked at his chalkboards, furrowing his brow as he scanned over the equations.

FBI cases for Don.

Oh right.

Charlie needed to finish his equations for Don.

Don.

Oh. Don was coming to pick him up.

Charlie's eyes widened as he realised Don was probably already on his way.

Jumping up and instantly swaying, Charlie took a moment to collect himself before hurrying around his office trying to collect all his relevant notes to finish work at home.

**8:05pm.**

Ok so Don was a little late. No bit deal.

Charlie sat in one of the chairs in his office, his shoulder bag in his lap, drumming his fingers on it.

He looked at the door before back at his watch frowning.

**8:20pm.**

Don was really late now.

Charlie sent Don a text asking him how long he was going to be.

After a few minutes with no response. Charlie tried ringing him. To no response.

Sighing, Charlie closed his phone and shivered, pulling his jacket tighter around himself.

He felt terrible.

In that moment, Charlie just wanted to go home.

He considered calling his dad for a ride home, seeing it was still raining outside. But his dad was already worried about him, and then he would be mad at Don. And Charlie didn't want to cause trouble.

He wasn't a baby. He was a grown man. He didn't need someone to pick him up. He could get home all by himself.

**8:32pm.**

Charlie winced at the rain pelting down on him as he pedalled his bicycle down the street away from CalSci.

It was really coming down now.

He'd only been cycling for a few minutes and he was already soaked.

Frantically, Charlie wiped at his face removing the water from his eyes so he could see.

But it wasn't easy. The amount of rainfall and wind, obscured his vision making it difficult to even see five feet in front of him.

It was now he realised it probably would have been a good idea to take a coat. But that was a little late now.

It was only a few blocks to his house. He could make it.

Albeit a bit wet.

He hated the rain. And storms.

As a kid he had often had nightmares about monsters when a storm hit. And now as he was riding in the dark, and rain, he could have sworn he saw monsters flittering around in the shadows.

But that was impossible. There was no such thing as monsters.

He knew that now. And he wasn't a child anymore.

His body let out a shudder as another sneeze and coughing fit escaped him, making his throat feel like it was on fire. Unfortunately, it caused his vision to blur and his bike veered to the left into the other lane, before he registered what was happening.

There were bright louds, a loud horn beeping.

Charlie's sick-riddled mind was slow to comprehend what was happening.

By time he did, it was too late.

Almost...

Charlie reacted at the last second as the car squealed and tried to veer away from him. Gripping the handles, Charlie yanked the bike hard to the right to try and get back into his lane as he braked.

The car veered around him and drove off.

He thought he was safe.

Until the tyres locked and skidded on the soaked filled road and he lost control.

The bike veered a sharp right, heading straight towards a row of parked cars.

It happened so fast.

One moment he was trying to get control of his back, rain attacking his face, then his bike ploughed right into a parked car and he was flying. Right over the top of a car, hitting the pavement hard, rolling and skidding along the ground. His head hit the ground first, and everything went black for a second.

When he came around, he was freezing cold and shaking hard. And he felt wet.

Something was hitting him.

It wasn't until he opened his eyes that he realised it was rain hitting his face. And he was laying face down on the street, his bike laying on top of him, crushing him.

"Ugh." Charlie groaned, his head pounding even more than it was before. Like someone was doing some construction right next to his head.

He gasped for air, feeling like he just had the wind knocked out of him.

It took him a moment to push through the pain and chance getting up. Shoving the bike off him as he sat up.

There was a sudden sound of ripping clothes and a sharp pain.

Charlie yelped looking down at his torso, seeing one of the metal bars from the back wheel had been snapped off and was sticking out. It had apparently scratched across his left side, just above his hip.

Tossing the bike angrily to the ground in front of him, Charlie weakly lifted his shirt covered in blood and grimaced at the long scratch. That really stung.

"Dammit!" Charlie huffed angrily. Then he paused staring at his hands. His palms were bright red with tiny scratches and covered with dirt. He must have scraped them on the ground when he skidded as he fell.

As he moved his arms to check the rest of himself out, he felt a sharp pain in his right arm. Peering he saw his sleeve was ripped as well. He must have skinned his arm as well.

Just great.

What a perfect end to a perfect day. Charlie thought sarcastically.

Pushing himself up off the ground, Charlie struggled to stand up. Stumbling and swaying as he put pressure on his legs, and felt a shooting pain making his head spin.

Grabbing his head, he fell into the parked car he crashed into. Charlie let it steady him for a moment as he tried to breathe through his nausea.

When he realised he probably wasn't going to throw up, he blew out a breath and straightened up.

Retrieving his bike, Charlie suddenly realised he couldn't ride it. It was partly bent out of shape from when he rammed it into the parker car.

Just as well, he wasn't sure his legs could work properly enough to ride it anyway.

He considered getting a cab, but as he looked around he realised the streets were pretty much deserted. That meant he was going to have to walk the rest of the way home.

Another coughing fit hit him, and when it passed, Charlie straightened his bag and clothes and started walking home.

It was going to be a long walk, but he could do it.

He secretly wished Don had picked him up now.


	4. Chapter 4

**9:04pm.**

Don opened the door to his brother's house, letting out a tired sigh. It had been a long day and he was exhausted. But it felt good. They had finally caught the shooter they were after, with Charlie's help.

"Don? That you?" Alan said as he was sitting in one of the chairs in the living room by the front door. He set down the paper as he saw him and stood up smiling.

"Hey dad."

"You like tired Don. You ok?"

"Oh yeah I'm fine. Just a long day. Well a long week really. But we closed one of our cases. The shooting."

"That's good Don. I just want to apologise for what I said to you earlier about Charlie. I was worried, but I shouldn't have taken it out on you. I know you work really hard at the FBI."

Don instantly stilled as it hit him; "Oh god." He groaned putting a hand to his face; "Charlie."

"What?" Alan said peering back at him concerned.

"I said I'd give him a ride home." Looking at his watch Don swore; "I was meant to pick him up an hour ago!" Then he checked his phone seeing he had some missed calls and a text from Charlie around 8, which he had missed because his phone had been on silent; "Dammit. I put my phone on silent during the raid and interrogation and forgot to put it back on ringer. I missed Charlie's phone calls and texts."

"Oh Don."

"No dad I know. Don't." Don said pulling out his car keys and headed towards the door; "I know I screwed up. Ok you were right. I pushed him too hard and I should have checked on him sooner. But I'll fix it."

He was just about to open the door when it was pushed open.

Leaving his bike outside, not wanting to explain to his dad what happened, Charlie made sure to hide any injuries as he walked into the house. He ambled in, soaking wet and dripping everywhere. His hair was even plastered to his face. He winced a little at the bright lights inside the house, finding they were like needles to his eyes.

When his eyes cleared, he was surprised and a little annoyed to see Don there. Especially seeing the look on Don's face. He already knew Don had forgot about him.

"Charlie!" Don said shocked and relieved. Charlie looked so much like a lost wet puppy. It broke his heart.

"Charlie! Oh god you're soaking wet." Alan said concerned from behind Don; "I'll get you a towel." He rushed away and Don winced at Charlie as he closed the door.

"Buddy...I'm so sorry. I forgot about picking you up and my phone was on silent. We were picking up the shooter, thanks for that by the way, and I just..."

"Don." Charlie interrupted closing his eyes for a moment before turning to Don, too tired to really listen to Don's apology. Honestly, he wasn't really interested in hearing it at all. But he put on a false smile turning back to him, grimacing with every word he spoke that made his throat burn more; "Don't worry about it. It's ok."

Don frowned baffled and persisted; "No it's not. I swore I'd pick you up and I didn't. I really am sorry. I'll make it up to you."

Alan returned with a towel which Charlie gratefully took, putting it over his head as he rubbed himself dry.

"Charlie are you ok?" Alan said concerned, eyeing his youngest with concern as he was shivering; "What did you do ride home on your bike in that weather?!"

"Well yeah." Charlie snapped simply; "I'm fine dad. Just a bit wet." He finished before letting out a loud sneeze and grimacing with a shiver.

Don felt even worse now, especially seeing the pointed look his dad sent him.

"You really should get out of those wet clothes Charlie."

Nodding, Charlie simply moved silently past them towards the stairs.

"Your limping Charlie." Alan noticed immediately, his voice rising.

"Hmm." Charlie looked down at his leg stilling. He really didn't want to explain how he stupidly veered in front of a car and fell off his bike. It was humiliating enough that he was sick and needed his big brother to come pick him up, he wasn't going to confirm their beliefs that he couldn't take care of himself.

"It's nothing. I just hit my leg in my office earlier." Charlie lied quickly, moving quickly towards the stairs.

"Charlie I really am sorry." Don uttered following him, placing his hand on the bannister, making Charlie stop.

As Charlie turned to him, Don felt that pit in his stomach grow. His soaking wet little brother looked so pitiful and sad, he felt awful.

"Don." Charlie said weakly with a small smile before a cough interrupted him; "Just forget about it. It doesn't matter. I don't need my big brother to drive me home from school."

With that Charlie ascended the stairs and Don was left speechless. What was that little dig about?

Damn Charlie really was pissed at him. And rightly so.

Turning back to face his dad, who said nothing, but his look spoke volume Don simply vowed; "I'm going to fix this."

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Charlie limped into the bathroom and slowly closed the door, letting his head rest against it for a moment. Turning on the light, he snapped his eyes closed for a moment in pain.

He barely made it up the stairs, his whole body was crying out in agony. It took everything in him not to show his pain to his dad or brother.

Moving to the bathtub, Charlie slowly lowered himself to perch on the side for a moment. Gripping the edges tightly as he closed his eyes, swaying.

His head was still pounding, even more so than earlier if that was possible.

Taking a shallow breath, Charlie slowly moved to take off his bag and clothes. Planning to take a hot shower, warm up and get into some new clothes.

His hands were shaking so hard it made it more difficult than it should have been.

Finally he peeled off his jacket and shirt, letting the wet clothes splat to the ground.

Then he looked down at him, wincing.

Aside from the scratch to his left side, he had a number of bruises already forming on his torso, and arms. Some small, but some larger.

There was a particularly large one in his right forearm. He moved his arm experimentally, hissing at the pain. It made his head spin for a moment, and he had to still and wait for it pass.

Damn this day sucked.

Slowly standing up, Charlie took off his pants as well and stepped into the shower. Letting the boiling water warm up his shivering cold body.

It stung against his cuts, making him hiss, but he pushed through it enjoying the warmth.

He wasn't sure how long he stood under the water, but at one point he had his eyes closed resting against the wall.

Finally, he turned off the water, grabbed a towel to wrap around him and stepped out of the tub.

As he did, his legs gave up and he swayed into the sink. Grabbing onto it to stop from falling over.

And that did it.

Retching, Charlie fell to his knees barely making it to the toilet bowl before he threw up. Only he had nothing to throw up and just continue retching for a moment. His throat hurt so much, he was surprised there wasn't any blood in the bowl. His eyes watered and his whole body shook violently.

He closed his eyes, pressing his palm to his eyes willing the pain to just disappear.

Finally, he felt so cold he couldn't take it anymore,, he needed to get up.

And he saw himself in the mirror and stopped.

His face looked so pale, almost like a ghost, and there was a cut at his hairline, which was already bleeding again.

Knowing he needed to cover up his injuries or Don wouldn't find out the truth, he pulled open the medicine cabinet and perused what he had to work with.

There was a first aid kid, and antibacterial solution.

That would do.

Opening the first aid kit, he pulled out the gauze. Tipping some of the solution onto it he first used it to clean up his forehead cut. And then moved onto his other cuts on his hands and predominantly on his hip.

Placing a bandage over the scratch on his hip, and making sure the other cuts had stopped bleeding, Charlie then headed out.

It took all his energy to get up and head to his bedroom to change.

By the time he was dressed, he wasn't sure he had any more energy to even move. His eyes started to flutter closed, until he heard voices downstairs.

Remembering Don and his dad were downstairs, Charlie found the strength to get up.

And he headed downstairs.

His head was still throbbing something bad, but he refused to take anything for it. Pain meds made his head foggy. More than it already was. And he needed to think clearly.

Don needed his help.

That's all that mattered.

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Don looked at the stairs with a pained expression where Charlie had just disappeared.

"I really am sorry." Don directed to his dad, who was silently cooking; "I didn't intentionally leave him there. I know I screwed up dad. I feel terrible."

"Donnie. I get it." Alan said softly; "You're overwhelmed with work and you have to prioritise what's important."

"Are you saying I don't think Charlie's important?" Don snapped defensively; "That is the complete opposite of the truth. He means everything to me."

"I'm not saying that Don. Of course I didn't mean anything by it. Sometimes I forget things too, it doesn't mean anything. I'm just trying to say, I'm sure Charlie understands you have an important job and that you didn't intentionally forget it. It wasn't your fault Donnie." Alan finished kindly; "Charlie gets that."

"Yeah well why does it still feel like my fault?" Don said angrily.

"Look Don I am sorry about what I said to you earlier at the office. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, it's just when it comes to Charlie I..."

"Worry." Don finished nodding; "Yeah tell me about it. I swear he's doing to send me to an early grave."

"I never meant to imply you didn't care about Charlie or that you would ever put him in danger. I meant what I said, I am incredibly proud of the work you do and the person you've become. How you deal with that stuff every day, and fight to bring justice to people. I knew you'd grow up to do good things but you do great things Don. And it actually makes me happy to see you and Charlie working together to do these great things."

Don was again left speechless, in awed by his father's praise.

"...Thanks dad." Don murmured softly; "I really appreciate that."

Alan shrugged; "I was saddened when you and Charlie drifted apart, but to see you now. It is probably the proudest and happiest I've ever been."

Don shifted uncomfortably for a moment, knowing he was just as responsible for their loss of touch as Charlie was. Maybe more so. There was a lot of tension between them back them, growing up wasn't the easiest for either of them. Being so different, they were competitive and argumentative. So it wasn't surprising they just went their separate ways. But thinking about it now, it was all just so stupid. The truth was now Don just couldn't imagine not seeing Charlie every day. And he wouldn't want to, he loved Charlie. He didn't ever want to lost touch again. He missed his brother and he was glad to have him back.

"Me too dad." Don replied honestly.

There was creaking as Charlie descended the stairs and Don turned just as Charlie walked through the doorway to the dining kitchen.

"Hey buddy." Don said softly offering a small smile, testing to see Charlie's mood; "How you feeling?"

"Fine." Charlie replied quickly, darting his eyes away from him. And Don immediately raised an eyebrow, he'd seen enough suspect interview to know Charlie was hiding something. Was he still mad at him?

Charlie looked a little better in fresh clothes. But he still seemed rather pale and shaky.

"You feeling ok?" Alan prompted; "Come sit down. We're just having dinner."

"I feel fine." Charlie insisted; "And no you know I was just going to take some food to the garage and carry on working." Charlie moved around the table to grab a plate of food. He had to make it look like he was going to eat something, not wanting to draw attention to himself.

"Come on Charlie. You're not still mad. I said I was sorry." Don snapped angrily. Charlie couldn't even eat with him now?

"What?" Charlie turned to Don baffled, his mind struggling to understand what Don was saying; "Mad about what?" He was genuinely confused.

Don shared a look with his dad; "About not picking you up. Charlie I am really sorry."

"I know you are. I told you it's fine Don." Charlie insisted immediately turning to grab a drink from the fridge. He was so thirsty, he just hoped he could keep it down; "It's not a big deal. I can get home by myself."

Another clear dig at him. Don furrowed his brow.

"Ok well then why don't you eat with us?"

"I have a lot of work to do." Charlie said simply, the pounding in his head getting worse and he just needed to get away from them. Or they would find out the truth.

"Yeah well just take a break Charlie." Don insisted; "We've already closed one case thanks to you, you've earned a respite. Just eat dinner and do it later."

"I thought you needed this. Now you don't?" Charlie snapped rounding on his angry. Don reeled back shocked, where had that come from?; "So you don't want my help now?"

"No now I never said that!"

"Charlie. Don't start a fight. Don's just worried about you. So am I. You're sick. You need to rest."

Rolling his eyes, Charlie scrubbed a hand over his face feeling ganged up on; "I'm not sick ok! I appreciate the concern but I'm fine. And I really need to get back to work."

"Yeah well you can do it later." Don commanded; "Now Charlie sit down and eat."

Charlie just glared at him before turning and walking out the patio door.

"Charlie!" Alan called after him shocked.

"Just let him go dad." Don said tiredly and disappointed, shaking his head as he walked into the dining room.

Alan watched Charlie go into the garage with a deep frown. Something was definitely going on with him.

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Charlie heard the footsteps but didn't bother turning around to see who it was.

It was an hour after his argument with Don and his dad in the kitchen, and he knew their dad had forced Don to come make amends with him.

Charlie knew he should be the one apologising. As soon as he snapped at Don he felt guilty. Don was only trying to help and so was his dad, but Charlie got defensive. Not wanting them to see what was wrong with him.

When he sensed the presence behind him, but didn't hear anything, Charlie turned slowly from writing on the chalkboard. He was secretly glad to have a break from the equations, for some reason he was having difficulty focusing.

Don was slowly perusing the chalkboard before meeting his gaze. Instead of an angry expression it appeared solemn.

"Listen Charlie..."

"I'm sorry." Charlie interrupted, not wanting to hear Don apologise. It would just make him feel worse. Twirling the chalk between his fingers, Charlie looked down; "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. I just...I guess I got a little defensive. I don't know why...I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that. I know you were just trying to help."

Don nodded slowly eyeing the plate of food that had been untouched, but the water bottle that had been emptied. Atleast he was drinking.

"We know how you get when you get engrossed in your work. And if I put too much pressure on you, or added any undo stress. I'm sorry buddy."

"It's ok."

"No it's not. Sometimes I guess I expect more from you because you're a genius." Don smirked slightly before it fell; "But if it ever becomes too much. If you are overworked you have to tell me. You can say no."

Charlie tilted his head and sneezed. Grimacing at the sharp pain in his head, he rubbed his forehead; "But I want to help. I can help. If I don't people will get hurt."

Don sighed; "I get that. But in this job you realise you can't save everyone. You can only do your best to help as many people as you can. It's not all on you Charlie. Now yes this is important.." Don gestured at the boards before pointing at Charlie; "But so are you Charlie. And you need to take care of yourself first and foremost. Ok? Which means resting and eating frequently."

Charlie hesitated looking at the equations in longing and then back at Don. He did feel pretty terrible and sleep was looking pretty good right now. But he felt a desire to get this finished.

"Come on buddy." Don said softly moving forward to wrap his arm around Charlie's shoulder. Seeing that Charlie was about to fall down. Wondering for a moment just how much sleep Charlie has had lately.

Charlie let Don lead him out of the garage and back to the house.

Don stayed for a while longer, making sure Charlie actually ate something.

Reluctantly Charlie tried to eat, picking small bites to start with, only because if he didn't they would get more suspicious.

Surprisingly, and thankfully he was actually able to keep the nausea at bay.

They got to have a nice evening talking and watching the game.

Then Don heard his dad call his name.

Looking at him, Alan just gestured at the sofa where Charlie was sitting. But now he had slipped down face down on the couch, an arm draped down to the floor, snoring.

Don smirked, relieved. Charlie was finally getting some well earned rest.

"Finally." He scoffed standing up and grabbing a blanket from the back of his sofa, and silently draping it over Charlie.

He paused when he caught his dad watching him with an unreadable expression.

"What?"

"Nothing." Alan said innocently, but he smirked at Don as he stood up and walked away.

Don just rolled his eyes straightening back up, looing fondly down at his little brother. He looked so innocent asleep, so young and small. And sick.

Charlie's skin was still very pale, his eyes sunken, and his skin looked clammy. Charlie shivered, subconsciously pulling the blanket more around him as he snuggled into the sofa.

On instinct, Don reached out to gently move some curls from Charlie's face, and pressed the back of his hand to Charlie's forehead. Frowning, at the warmth he felt, Don moved the blanket to fully cover Charlie. He really was sick.

Grabbing his jacket, he slipped it on and headed to find his father doing the dishes; "Dad I'm just heading out. Thanks for dinner."

"Sure thing Donnie." Alan replied before turning to face Don a concerned expression on his face; "Charlie ok?"

"He's still asleep." Don paused before continuing; "I think you're right. He's sick. I think he had a fever."

Alan nodded solemnly; "I'm just glad he's finally getting some rest."

"Yeah. Listen, we've already closed one case, I think we can probably manage from here. Just tell Charlie we got it under control, and make sure he gets some rest."

Alan smiled at Don pleased to see he was finally coming around, before hesitating; "You really think Charlie is just going to stop trying to help? You know how he is, especially when he's sick."

Shrugging Don sighed; "I don't know dad, maybe tell him we've already solved it or something. Just until he's feeling better."

Dubiously, Alan nodded; "I'll try."

"I'll check on him tomorrow ok." Don said before he headed out, slowly edging out the front door so as not to wake his brother.

On the ride home, Don couldn't help but feel responsible for Charlie being ill. For overworking him, for forcing to come home in the rain. He wasn't a good brother. But he was going to change that.

Atleast it had stopped raining.


	5. Chapter 5

Charlie woke up with a jolt, his whole body flinching, his eyes snapping open. Looking around wildly and fearfully.

Where was he? What was going on?

His head was really foggy, and his body felt strange. His hands felt numb, with pins and needles, and the rest of his extremities felt disconnected.

He didn't like it.

Groaning, Charlie pushed his head into the sofa cushion trying to understand what was happening. But his skin felt so sensitive that he shivered and trembled at the contact.

Everything just felt so wrong. He felt like crying.

Finally, he shifted to face the room. Blinking, until his vision adjusted, and he saw he was on the sofa in his living room.

It was dark, really dark. It had to be night outside.

And he had a blanket on him.

His dad and Don were gone, and it was utterly silent in the house.

It took him longer than it should have to realise that he must have fallen asleep on the couch during the evening. And they let him sleep.

Shifting, Charlie pulled out his watch and tried to let the moonlight illuminate it. After several moments he finally did, seeing it was gone 2 am.

Hmm.

Charlie turned to stare at the ceiling for a moment, his head pounding so much he didn't dare move a muscle because it hurt so much. He couldn't think straight.

He was really thirsty too, but the nausea was coming back with a vengeance. Probably from that food he ate last night.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew he had to get up. He just didn't know why.

Something about Don. And equations...a case!

The robbery case!

Eyes widening, Charlie bolted upright in realisation. And the world instantly tilted sideways.

Before he knew it, he was staring up at the ceiling again, only this time he was lying on the floor. Having rolled off the sofa.

"Ow." Charlie groaned, closing his eyes for a moment as everything hurt. His chest hurt and he found himself coughing a few times, making it hurt even more.

Clearing his throat, Charlie finally pushed himself up into a seated position against the back of the sofa. His head spun, and he pinched the bridge of his nose trying to clear it.

Standing up, Charlie took a few steps and intantly stumbled sideways into the wall. Well that wasn't good.

Trying to shake it off, Charlie continued undeterred outside to the garage.

He needed to continue working.

For Don's case.

As he walked through the grass towards the garage, his body turned on him.

His stomach clenched and he doubled over, throwing up last nights food into the grass.

He clutched his torso, continuing to retch for a few moments. His chest felt tight, his throat burning, and his head felt like it was going to explode.

Finally, Charlie managed to stumble into the garage and flop down onto the chair for a moment.

Looking at the equations, Charlie had to squint because the numbers were jumbled and blurry.

Angry rubbing his forehead, Charlie glared at the chalkboard, willing his brain to focus.

Shakily picking up the chalk, Charlie started writing.

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Alan descended the stairs and headed straight for the living room sofa to check on his youngest son. But he instantly froze, seeing the sofa empty, and the blanket haphazardly laying on the ground screwed up.

"Charlie." Alan murmured disappointed shaking his head; "CHARLIE!" He called out louder turning to check the rest of the house. But the dining room, kitchen and upstairs were all empty.

That just left the garage.

Bursting into the garage angry now, Alan ground out; "Charlie?!"

But the garage too was empty.

Frowning, Alan looked around seeing there was more scribbles on the chalkboard, and things moved around. Charlie had been out here, but he was gone now.

Turning to leave, he spotted a post it note stuck to the centre of the middle chalkboard. Heading over, he slipped on his glasses as he peeled it off the board.

Reading the scrawled words of Charlie.

**Dad,**

**At FBI to help Don.**

**Fine. Check in later.**

"Dammit Charlie." Alan scrunched the note up angrily. He needed rest not to continue working.

Rushing back into the house, he knew he had to call Don.

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Don was in a meeting with his team to discuss what they knew on their robbers, to discuss their next move when his phone rung.

Instantly, picking it up knowing it could be important, he answered; "Epps." As he looked at a file in his hands.

Then he stilled furrowing his brow looking up; "Dad? Hey...what? No slow down! What?" He slammed the file down on the table as he listened and the others all looked at him, detecting the tension in his voice.

"No I have no idea. Well he's not here...yeah no of course...yeah I'll let you know if I hear anything."

Don snapped his phone shut and stared into space for a minute.

"Don." Megan said standing up slowly, eyeing him concerned; "Everything ok?"

"Charlie." Don shook his head, rubbing an angry hand over his face; "He's been working too much, not sleeping or eating and he's sick. I left him at the house last night to get some rest, telling my father to keep him there, that we could manage. But apparently Charlie worked all night and left early this morning, to come here. Dammit Charlie." Don huffed, instantly dialling Charlie's number.

Megan turned to share a glance with David and Colby.

"He's not answering." Don growled tossing his phone angrily on the desk.

"You're worried." Megan observed cautiously; "Do you think he's ok?"

"Sometimes Charlie gets so obsessed in his work he forgets to eat and sleep, and if he's sick as well... I just...I want to make sure he's ok." Don felt that familiar pang of guilt about not picking Charlie up last night. If he made his illness worse...

"Well here's your chance." Colby suddenly said gesturing towards the door. Don turned sharply looking through the glass window at Charlie rushing towards the conference room they were in, an armful of papers and notebooks. Bustling past people so fast, he collided into some and dropped bits of paper but carried on. Either he didn't care about them, or didn't notice.

"Charlie?" Don rushed to the door yanking it open to greet his brother both relived and worried. But something was definitely off; "Charlie what are you..."?

Charlie just burst back him slamming his stack of stuff onto a table, muttering to himself as he rifled through it, and letting out a raspy cough.

"Hey Charlie." Megan said slowly and kindly.

Charlie suddenly stilled and looked up, Megan immediately noted the glassy far off look on his face and his clammy skin, shooting a look at Don.

"Oh hi." Charlie said slowly, pausing to close his eyes and shake his head. Everything was fuzzy, sounding muffled to Charlie. And the pounding in his head was getting worse. Like there was a stabbing sensation behind his eyes.

Then Charlie looked at Don for the first time; "Don."

"Charlie what are you doing here?" Don demanded, trying to contain his fury, seeing Charlie wasn't exactly present; "Dad just called me in hysterics. You were supposed to stay home and rest."

Charlie smiled for a second holding up a finger, which Don immediately noticed was shaking; "I finished my equation. For your shooting case."

"Uh we closed that case Charlie." David said slowly looking confused at Don.

Charlie paused frowning; "What?"

"The shooting case we closed it." Megan repeated; "Remember? You helped us."

Charlie rubbed a hand over his face; "No but..." It didn't make sense. Nothing made sense. And why was everything so bright and loud?

"Charlie why don't I take you home?" Don sighed softly reaching for his arm. Charlie was clearly not well.

"No." Charlie snapped yanking his arm away from Don, stumbling back. He didn't know why, but he had to be here.

"Charlie..." Don started tense.

"No I'm here to help." Charlie exclaimed rushing to his stack of papers and notebooks, rifling through before pulling one out; "The robbery case right. I finished the equation. Look...no wait.." Charlie frowned as he looked at the pages, taking a moment to register the equations and realised it wasn't the right ones; "Ok no wait..." Charlie dropped it and went for another one.

"Ok Charlie why don't you just take a sit for a minute buddy?" Don said gently touching his arm, trying to lead him to a chair. Planning to get a medic in here to look at him.

"Here!" Charlie snatched up a bit of paper, crumpling it in his hand as he waved it at Don; "I've made a uh Feiling analysis of the crimes, and uh the routes they fled and I've decided...no no deduced a er possible way to track them."

"Ok ok look we'll check it out." Don said quickly; "But why don't you just sit down for me ok?" He pulled out a chair and tried to lead Charlie into it.

"No!" Charlie snapped trying to struggle free; "You're not listening. You're not..." Charlie was getting agitated. Everything was getting fuzzy. The lights were too bright, and sounds were getting quieter. Like they were far off. And as he looked around he saw everyone was staring at him strangely. His throat was burning even more now, and his head pounded.

A cough escaped from him, and he grabbed his chest feeling a tight pain.

"Charlie?" Don said concerned peering at him; "Charlie? You ok? You want a glass of water?"

"I don't...I can't.." More coughs ripped from his lungs and Charlie's vision spun.

This time he couldn't fight the darkness coming and he collapsed.

"Charlie!" Don exclaimed catching Charlie as he fell. Gently lowering him to the ground; "CHARLIE!"

Megan rushed over as David and Colby jumped up.

"What happened?" David demanded shocked.

Don checked Charlie's pulse when Charlie didn't wake up. It was fast. Too fast.

"He's burning up Don." Megan said as she gently touched Charlie's face, and paused to share a look with Don.

"Alright call an ambulance!" Don yelled looking briefly at David and Colby.

"On it!" Colby said racing from the room.

"AND HURRY!" Don shouted after him.

"Charlie?" Don said softly turning back to Charlie, tapping his face; "Charlie? Come on buddy? Wake up? Talk to me."

Something suddenly caught Megan's eyes and she looked down to Charlie's torso, to his white shirt, specifically a section under his jacket.

"Don." She said dangerously, moving to lift Charlie's jacket, revealing a patch of blood.

Don swore his eyes widening and his heart raced in horror; "What the hell?"

Megan slowly lifted Charlie's shirt slightly to where he was bleeding.

"Woah." David's eyes widened and he took a step back, as they all saw the number of bruises on Charlie's torso.

Angrily and terrified, Don reached over to lift it up further and swore again; "What the hell happened?!"

Immediately, he feared the worse. Someone beat up his little brother! He was going to kill whoever hurt Charlie.

"There's a bandage here." Megan furrowed her brow, gently peeling the bandage off revealing a large scratch. The area was really red, and puffy; "This looks infected."

"Where's that ambulance!" Don shouted, immediately noticing how a crowd was forming outside the conference room. Colby pushed past to get back in.

"It's on it's way. Two minutes." Colby panted before looking at Charlie and stilling; "Jesus."

"Hmmm." Charlie suddenly groaned, his brow furrowing, causing everyone to look at him

"Charlie?" Don demanded, reaching over to cup his face; "Buddy? Can you hear me?"

Charlie recognised the voice calling him, but couldn't quite place it.

"Charlie? Charlie open your eyes."

There was a gentle tapping to his face. It was cold, and it was then Charlie released how hot he felt. Instinctively he leant into the cool touch.

"Chuck please."

That did it.

Charlie slowly opened his eyes, finding everything far too bright. He snapped his eyes shut again.

"No Charlie come on stay with me."

"Don." There was another gentler voice that Charlie found familiar. Megan?

Opening his eyes again, this time he managed to keep them open. There were blobs all around him that made Charlie scared.

"Hey buddy. That's it."

Charlie turned to his left at the blob, and as he blinked it cleared revealing Don.

"D-don?" Charlie murmured confused.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Don smiled shakily; "Hey buddy. How you're feeling?"

Why would Don ask him that? What was he looking down at him?

"What 'appened?" Charlie replied

Don's smile fell; "You collapsed Charlie. You're not well, but it's going to be ok. I promise. I'm right here, it's all going to be ok." As Don was finishing, Charlie was turning away furrowing his brow.

He let out a moan and Don stiffened.

"Charlie?"

"Charlie what is it?" Megan asked.

"M'dont feel good. Hurts." Charlie warned squeezing his eyes shut.

"Hurts? What hurts?"

"Head. Body. Throat...everything..."

Groaning again, this time differently, and Don must have sensed it because he knew what it was and reacted quickly. Lifting Charlie up and tossing a trashcan into his hand just as he threw up.

"Get everyone out of here! This isn't a circus! Get back to work!" Don shouted as he glared at the crowd gawking.

David and Colby rushed out, and Don could hear them chasing people away.

Don returned his attention to his brother, rubbing Charlie's back as he retched but nothing came out. He had nothing to throw up.

"It's ok buddy." Don soothed, sending a panicked look at Megan.

"You're going to be ok Charlie." Megan reassured, sending a reassuring look at Don. But honestly, she wasn't sure. They had no idea what happened, and Charlie looked really bad.

When Charlie finished throwing up, he swayed backwards into something soft.

It was Don, his chest against Charlie's back. Running a hand through Charlie's hair softly.

He heard voices, like Don was speaking to him, but couldn't tell what he was saying.

"...Stay with me Charlie. The ambulance is coming. Stay with me."

That was the last thing Charlie heard before darkness overtook him again.

"Charlie?" Don said panicked, peering down at Charlie as he slumped against him. But he was out cold again.

"Charlie!" Don snapped shaking him; "Dammit where's that ambulance?!"

As if on queue, a couple of paramedic burst into the conference room and immediately shoved Don aside to work on Charlie. He tried to push back but Megan gently pulled Don back; "Let them work Don."

Don just watched horrified as the paramedics were checking Charlie's pupils and attaching leads to him. They rattled off strange numbers and words that left Don feeling sick and terrified.

A mask was placed over Charlie's face, and Don caught a few terrifying words.

"...breathing compromised...high stats...fever..."

"Is he ok?" Don finally demanded unable to take it anymore.

"We're not sure. His vitals are erratic and unstable. We need to get him to the hospital." One of the paramedics said sparing Don a brief glance before turning back to loading Charlie onto a gurney.

Don followed them all the way down to the ambulance, never taking his eyes off his little brother.

"Sir we need you to stay here." One of the paramedics barred Don from getting in the ambulance.

"This is my brother. I'm coming." Don stared them down refusing to budge. He wasn't going to let Charlie out of his sight again; "Besides, I'm FBI." That did it.

The paramedic sighed before nodding and gesturing Don on board.

There was no way Don was going to let Charlie out of his sight again.


	6. Chapter 6

"Dad." Don gulped as he paused to think of what to say to his dad about Charlie. He stared at Charlie as the paramedic worked on him, listening to the rhythmic beeping, feeling reassured that it meant Charlie was alive and ok.

"Don? What is it? Is Charlie ok? Is that a siren?" Alan demanded and Don paused sighing.

"Dad it's Charlie. Something happened. He collapsed in the office. I'm with him now in an ambulance heading to the hospital."

There was a moment of silence the other end of the phone.

"What?! Is Charlie ok? Hospital? What hospital?"

"I don't know dad. They're working on him. I think he's ok." Don reasoned not wanting to worry his dad too much. He didn't want to tell him about Charlie's injuries until he knew more about what happened.

"Hey what hospital are we going to?" Don pulled the phone away to ask the paramedic.

"County." The guy replied without looking at him.

"It's county hospital dad." Don said over the phone.

"Ok ok I'll meet you there."

There was a pause then Alan added, his voice scared; "Is he going to be ok Donnie?"

"It's Charlie." Don replied simply, hoping to reassure his dad, because Charlie was always ok, but then again Charlie tended to get himself into trouble sometimes and maybe he wasn't so sure this time...

0o0o0o0oNumb3rs0o0oo0o0o

As soon as they arrived at the hospital, Charlie was wheeled away, and when Don tried to follow a couple of nurses threatened him into staying in the waiting area. Completely ignoring that he was an FBI agent.

Don was fuming and terrified.

They had taken his brother away with no information of what was wrong with him, and now he was just expected to sit around and wait. Charlie could be dying...

The thought itself was enough for Don to still, looking fearfully after where Charlie had disappeared.

Please Charlie be ok!

Don couldn't handle losing Charlie. He just couldn't.

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Don was pacing in the waiting area, checking his phone every ten seconds. He'd called Megan with an update, and requested she check into Charlie's activity the passed few days, worried someone may have done this.

It had been half an hour. A nurse came by to take information from him, about Charlie and what happened. He told them everything he knew and they rushed off again.

People, doctors and nurses were all rushing around, and Don kept his eyes trained on all of them in case they were Charlie's doctor.

His mind was going crazy with scenarios.

But he stopped pacing when his dad rushed in.

"Dad!" Don met him as he ran over.

"Charlie?" Alan asked immediately looking around nervously.

Don shook his head and held up his hands; "I don't know anything dad. As soon as we arrived, they took Charlie away. I haven't heard anything since."

"Ok. Ok. Well that doesn't mean anything." Alan insisted; "It's just the flu. Charlie will be fine."

Don looked around guiltily, before gesturing for his dad to sit down; "Dad. When Charlie collapsed at the office, we noticed he was bleeding. There was a cut on his left side which had a bandage over it but was still bleeding, and looked infected. And...he was covered in bruises."

"What?!" Alan exclaimed causing a few people to look over; "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

"I didn't want to say it over the phone. And I was waiting until we knew more."

Alan stared angrily at Don before narrowing his eyes; "You think he was attacked?" Because of the FBI?"

Don shrugged angrily running a hand through his hair; "I don't know dad. God I really hope not. But this is what I worry about every day Charlie is working with me, that someone is going to come after him because of the work we do." He stood up pacing angrily; "And if someone hurt him because of me..."

"Don." Alan stood up quickly grabbing his arm stopping his pacing; "It's not your fault. Charlie wouldn't blame you and he wouldn't want you to blame yourself."

"But dad..."

"No Don. I don't care. Whether Charlie was attacked or not, it wasn't your fault."

"I never should have let him work at the FBI."

"You and I both know you couldn't have stopped Charlie if you tried. You're both as stubborn as each other."

Don smiled a little at that.

"Besides, we don't know for sure he was attacked right?"

Don nodded reluctantly; "I got Megan and the team looking into it."

Suddenly, a doctor in scrubs and a lab coat came through the double doors and stopped to survey the waiting area. He wasn't sure how, but Don just knew it was Charlie's doctor.

The doctor must have sensed the same and headed over to them.

"Family of Charlie Eppes?"

"Yes I'm his brother Don, and this is our dad, Alan."

"Hello. I'm Dr Williams." The doctor greeted them and then eyed Don for a moment; "You're the FBI agent who brought Charlie in? You're also his brother?"

Don just nodded; "How is he? Is he ok?"

Dr Williams took a breath before replying; "Charlie is stable for now and I'll take you to see him in a moment. We've run some tests and determined he had a pretty bad case of the flu. He has a fever, is dehydrated and malnourished. As you would expect with the flu, he was probably feeling too nausea to eat anything, and then throwing up. The problem is because he wasn't properly eating or drinking, he's got very dehydrated from being sick. Now we've got some fluids in him, which should help him feel better, and he's currently sleeping which is doing him good."

"What about his injuries?" Don prompted impatiently, crossing his arms to stop from punching something.

The doctor nodded a grim face forming, causing a pit of dread in Don's gut; "We had to do some x-rays and a CT, but it's not serious." He said quickly; "It looks like Charlie has a mild concussion, and an infection from the cut on his side. There's also some cuts on his hands and elbow, that look infected. Now we've got in strong antibiotics which should help. The cuts do look pretty fresh, I'd say they can't be more than 24 hours old. So it is rather odd they got infected so quickly."

"What are you saying?" Alan asked.

"It looks like some kind of debris or bacteria got into the scratch. It's possible whatever cut him was dirty or rusty. It appears he tried to clean the cuts and bandage them." Dr Williams paused for a moment; "But the bacteria of the infection was already in his system."

"Can you deduce how he got hurt?" Don clarified.

The doctor hesitated, knowing that Don was worried his brother had been attacked and chose his words carefully; "I can't say for sure. But it doesn't look like he was attacked."

"Why do you say that?"

"The cut is jagged and shallow. Not something you would see if he was cut with a knife or anything like that."

At Don's raised eyebrow, Dr Williams offered a wry smile; "Trust me you see enough knife wounds and injuries in this line of work. Anyway, Charlie's bruises are all rather small, not something you'd see if he was hit with fists or any kind of object. Now I'm not sure what happened, but in my professional opinion he wasn't attacked."

Don frowned. He felt relieved but also a little apprehensive. Because it was a relief that no one hurt Charlie, but then that begged the question. What happened to him?

"So will he be ok?" Alan clarified bringing Don back to focus.

"He should be." Dr Williams replied with a reassuring smile; "His prognosis looks good. We're taking good care of him. Right now he needs rest. But I'll take you to see him now."

Don and Alan nodded eagerly and followed him through the main part of the ER to the elevators, and up to another floor. They were led past a number of rooms before finally entering a room.

Don rushed to Charlie's side, seeing him lying in a bed in a hospital gown unconscious. He was hooked up to a large machine which was beeping loudly, and there was a nasal cannula around his face. Then there were all these other leads attached to him, leading to a bag of some liquid.

"I know it may seem scary and overwhelming, but this is all to help Charlie." Dr Williams explained seeing their faces; "He's doing well. He's only sleeping so he might wake up in the next few hours. You can stay with him. I'll come by to check on him again in a bit."

"Thank you." Alan replied as the doctor left.

Don turned to his dad giving a small smile.

"He'll be ok." Alan insisted and Don wanted to believe him. But he couldn't help but worry. When it came to Charlie all he did was worry.

"You're going to be the death of me buddy." Don murmured softly as he took Charlie's hand in his own. Momentarily surprised by the small bandages around his hands.

He didn't like seeing Charlie hurt like this. It scared the hell out of him.

But injuries healed. Charlie would heal and be back to normal in no time.

Don just wasn't sure whether Charlie should come back to the FBI.


	7. Chapter 7

"It's all looking good." Dr Williams murmured as he straightened up from checking Charlie's eyes a few hours later, and stopped to write in the chart; "His fever is still high, as is his infection, but the antibiotics are doing their job."

"Ok that's good." Don nodded slowly trying to follow; "So he's ok? He'll be fine."

"Well there's no serious injuries. But we won't know for sure until he wakes up and we can do a neural exam." Dr Williams added carefully; "With his fever, infection and possible concussion, it's a lot for his body and mind to go through. So we just need to make sure his neural function is ok. "

Don knew there was more he wasn't saying. He was sugar-coating how serious Charlie was not to worry them.

"How long until he wakes up?"

"We can try now if you like." Dr Williams said already moving back over to Charlie. He stood one side as Don and Alan stood the other.

"Charlie?" Dr Williams called loudly, reaching over to shine a penlight in his eyes hoping to elicit a response; "Charlie can you hear me?"

0o0o0o0Numb3rs0o0o0

Charlie's head felt like cotton candy. He couldn't hold a single thought for more than a few seconds.

It felt like he was floating. Or flying.

It was actually rather peaceful.

Until he heard voices. Muffled. All around him.

Sometimes they were louder, sometimes further away.

Then they started calling his name.

"...Charlie?...hear me?"

A light was shone in his eyes making him wince and snap them shut, trying to turn away.

"Come on buddy time to get up."

"Don?" Charlie said furrowing his brow as slowly opened his eyes, wondering why Don was waking him up. What was he doing in his bedroom?

Don's smiling face greeted him as his eyes adjusted, along with his dad's and a doctor it looked like. All looking at him.

"Hey Charlie. How are you feeling?" Alan said brightly, patting his leg.

Pausing he looked around realising he was in a hospital bed.

"Wha?" Charlie croaked, instantly breaking into a coughing fit, his throat so dry he couldn't even swallow.

"Here." Dr Williams held a plastic cup with a straw out to Charlie; "Take small sips. Your throat might be a bit sore."

 _That's the understatement of the year._ Charlie thought to himself as he tried to drink as much as he could.

He took it before Charlie could get anymore though, and he glared at the doctor.

"You can have some more in a minute. We just need to make sure you keep it down."

"Why am I in hospital?" Charlie said still raspy but better, furrowing his brow he turned to Don blankly.

"You're just a little sick buddy." Don said cautiously turning to the doctor for help.

"Charlie. I'm Dr Williams, I'm your doctor when you came into the ER. Can you tell me your name?"

Charlie paused looking at Don baffled. Why would he need to know his name? Didn't he know it? He just said it.

"Professor Charles Epps."

Don smirked at the professor bit.

"Ok very good."

"Now do you know what day it is?"

"No. But first I need data to work that out." Charlie added quickly; "Like how long I've been unconscious for."

Alan and Don shared smiled. Charlie was back.

Dr Williams raised an eyebrow at the family.

"Charlie." Don interrupted knowing what a real test would be; "What's four thousand and fifty eight multiplied by two thousand seven hundred and twenty one?" He asked pulling out his phone to check.

Instantly Charlie replied; "Twelve million, five hundred and eleven thousand, one hundred and fifty eight. Why? Is that for a case?" Charlie cleared his throat, wincing, wishing he could have more water. But his stomach churned, and he held his breath.

Don just grinned at the calculator; "Nah buddy just checking."

"He's a mathematician." Alan explained to the doctor who nodded in understanding.

"So what happened?" Charlie was trying to think, but his mind was still really foggy.

"What do you remember Charlie?" Dr William asked softly.

"Um." Charlie screwed his face up seeing vague flashes of the FBI office and his house; "We were at FBI?" Charlie guessed looking at Don for the answer. But Don didn't look happy and Charlie slouched, moving to rub his head; "I can't...my head...It hurts and everything feels off."

"That's understandable Charlie." Dr Williams assured him; "You're got the flu and an infection which is giving you a slight fever, and it looks like you got a concussion as well."

Charlie frowned looking away trying to understand what they were saying. But it just wasn't registering.

"Charlie." Don said loudly forcing him to look at him; "What happened to you?"

Charlie just looked at him blankly and Don clarified.

"The bruises. The scratch. The head injury. What happened to you?"

"Oh." Charlie looked down at his lap, moving to play with his hands. His face paled even more, and he let out a few coughs wincing.

"It's ok take deep breaths." Dr Williams assured him; "Your lungs are a little crackly from a cough."

"Charlie." Don prompted seeing Charlie was really hiding something and he didn't like it; "Did someone hurt you?"

"No." Charlie softly before sighing and rubbing his face; "It's not a big deal."

"What isn't Charlie?" Alan asked leaning forward.

"I fell off my bike." Charlie finally admitted looking at Don fearfully.

"You what?" Don said baffled furrowing his brow.

Sighing, Charlie paused to collect his thoughts, struggling to form words in his current state; "Last night. When I rode my bike home, it was raining and I lost control of my bike. I may have veered into the other lane and there was a car..."

Don's face thundered in rage and Charlie had to look away as he finished in a whisper; "I managed to veer out the way but...my bike hit a parked car and I flipped over the top of it landing on the pavement."

"Jesus Charlie!" Don huffed turning away and Alan sent him a look.

"Go on Charlie." Dr Williams pressed after a moment.

"Well I think I hit my head and scraped my hands. My elbow hurts too."

"And what about the scratch?" Dr Williams asked.

"My bike. It landed on me when I fell. And there was a metal piece of the tyre that had broken off, probably from the crash. When I pushed the bike off me, it scratched me."

"Was the bike rusty Charlie?" Dr Williams asked starting to catch on.

Charlie shrugged; "Dunno."

"It's pretty old." Alan admitted.

"Well that explains the infection." The doctor murmured; "Between the dirt from the pavement, and the rust from the bike."

"What were you thinking Charlie? Why didn't you tell me?" Don demanded and Charlie shrunk away.

"Didn't want you to worry." Charlie said nervously before breaking out into a coughing fit.

"Don." Alan chastised worriedly seeing Charlie getting upset.

"Ok your brother needs rest right now, not to get stressed out." Dr Williams warned seeing Charlie's vitals spike; "Maybe you should step out for a moment."

"No we're staying." Don refused but the doctor looked at him and Alan sighed.

"Donnie come on." Alan grabbed his son's arm and tugged him out.

Don frowned looking at his dad and the doctor, and then at Charlie who wouldn't meet his eyes.

Finally, he nodded and followed his dad out.

"Dad." Don rounded on his father as soon as they were outside the room.

"Don." Alan held up a hand stopping him; "The doctor's right. Charlie needs rest. Not to get yelled at."

"I just...this is my fault dad!" Don snapped and Alan looked at him sadly.

"Don.." Alan quickly led him further down the hall, when people passed and looked at them funny.

"If I had picked him up that night, this never would have happened. He wouldn't have gotten almost hit by a car, he wouldn't have fallen off his bike and got a bloody infection! His fever wouldn't have got where it was because he was out there in a storm! And he wouldn't have collapsed at the FBI!"

"He was still sick Don, you had nothing to do with that."

"Yeah well maybe I did." Don said pacing; "I mean I'm the one who gave him all that work to do, making him work all-nighters, not getting sleep or eating. That's probably why he got sick in the first place."

"Don..."

"I'm his brother. I'm supposed to protect him! To keep him safe! Instead I put him in danger!"

"Don you're not his bodyguard. And he is a grown man. You can't protect him all the time. And you certainly can't stop him from getting sick." Alan sighed putting his hands on his hip; "Honestly, this is partly mine and your mothers fault."

"What are you talking about?"

"We made you look out for Charlie when you were both younger."

"Yeah so?"

"Well that wasn't supposed to be your job. It was ours. It's just...Charlie was so young and going to high school, and getting picked on. He wasn't like you Don. And we worried about him."

"Yeah I know. I remember I had to walk him home from school for a whole year because some kid was tormenting him, and then one day you told me to stop and he got beat up." Don's jaw hardened at the memory, he had been enraged that Charlie got hurt because he failed to protect him.

"Because I realised it wasn't fair to Charlie. Yes we had to protect him and keep him safe, but we can't shield him from the world Don. I realised he needed to lean to protect himself, to stand up for himself. So I watched as he was jumped, but it wasn't until he started to fight back that I intervened. When I realised he was capable of facing the world alone."

Don let his hands drop shocked and amazed.

"He's always been protected and loved Don, and maybe that wasn't fair. And it wasn't fair to you either, forcing you to look out for Charlie when you had your own life to lead."

"I didn't mind dad." Don said quietly, because he didn't now. Maybe he had back then, being a kid he just wanted to do kid things.

Alan just sent him a knowing look; "Well maybe if we had handled things better you two wouldn't have drifted apart the way you did."

"I'm just glad we found a way to be brothers again."

"Me too. And you know I understand as his big brother you feel an obligation to protect him. I do too. But like you said he's a grown man and we can't protect him from everything. We have to let him live his life. Make mistakes. Protect himself. And what happened with the bike accident was just a fluke, that's nothing you could have predicted or prevented."

"Ok well maybe it wasn't anything to do with the FBI this time, but you don't know the real dangers of this work. Next time it may be something far worse."

"So what are you doing to do? Fire him?" Alan scoffed.

"Are you really saying you aren't worried about him working with me?"

"No I'm not. Because I know you would never let him get hurt, and well honestly, seeing you two work together is the happiest I've ever been. I wish your mother could see you two now."

Don hesitated looking away.

"Besides, you know you couldn't stop Charlie if you tried." He finished in a smirk. Don smiled back and sighed, his anger and guilt deflating; "He is pretty stubborn."

Alan just chuckled earning a confused look from Don, before he narrowed his eyes realising the insinuation that he was just as stubborn.

"Charlie will be fine Don. I have no doubt about it, that you both will be."

Don patted his dad's arm; "Thanks dad."

"Yeah now come on. We should be with Charlie."

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Watching Don and his dad, Charlie felt instantly terrible. He never wanted them to find out what happened, now they were really mad at him.

"Charlie?" Dr Williams said softly drawing his attention back and he suddenly noticed a nurse was also in the room, bustling around him; "How are you feeling? Any pain? Nausea?"

"Yes." Charlie replied simply, and watched as the doctor nodded and jotted it down into his chart.

"Could you be more specific?" Dr Williams prompted; "Where does it hurt?"

"Everywhere..." Charlie offered, before sighing as he continued; "I dunno. My head I guess. It's pounding really bad, like there's some kind of pressure. It won't stop. I can't think straight." Charlie said angrily letting his hand drop to the bed, closing his eyes suddenly feeling tired.

"Ok I know you're tired Charlie, but could you stay awake a little longer so we can do a neural exam?" Dr Williams asked pulling out his penlight again. He shined it in both Charlie's eyes checking his pupil response.

Charlie winced slamming his eyes shut.

"Sensitive to light?" Dr Williams concluded, which the nurse wrote down.

"Ok now follow my finger." Dr Williams then held up his index finger, moving it from side to side in front of Charlie's eyes, watching his eyes track him; "Ok good. Now.." He paused to take Charlie's hands in his; "Squeeze my hands."

"Good." The doctor said relieved raising Charlie's arms in the air; "Close your eyes for me." And then let go watching as Charlie's arms stayed steady, if not drifting slightly.

"Ok that's good."

Charlie let his arms drop, opening his eyes and swallowing hard again; "Can I have some more water?"

The nurse held it out to him watching as Charlie took some sips and winced.

"Throat still sore?"

Charlie nodded grimacing.

"How long have you been feeling sick?" The doctor continued.

Charlie hesitated, not wanting to admit he was sick. But the cat was already out of the bag he guessed.

"I dunno a few days I guess."

"And your symptoms?"

"Um..." Charlie trailed off furrowing his brow as he tried to think; "Sore throat, cough, headache, dizziness, trouble sleeping, eating, nausea. Sick. A lot. Trouble focusing. Hot. Cold." He then shrugged.

"Well that definitely sounds like the flu. Now these symptoms are they better or worse now?"

"Worse." Charlie sighed tiredly leaning back into the bed, his eyes already drooping; "Head really killing me." He shivered and coughed raspy.

Dr Williams pulled a mask out and slid it over Charlie's face telling him to take deep breaths. And he slid a pain pump handle into Charlie's hand; "Push this button if you feel any pain ok? It will help. Just get some rest ok."

Within moments Charlie was asleep.

The nurse just noted some stuff on Charlie's chart shaking her head.

"Flu, a concussion and an infection. Poor kid."

"Yeah. He's in for a rough ride." Dr Williams agreed reluctantly looking sympathetically down at Charlie.

Sighing Dr Williams straightened up; "Let's just focus on getting his fever and infection down, that should help and we'll go from there."


	8. Chapter 8

When Charlie woke up again, it was very quiet and he thought he was alone. His head felt a little better but still hurt.

His stomach finally stopped churning and his throat felt better. That was good.

But he felt really cold.

Shivering, he turned the right he saw Don sitting in a chair by his bed, reading a magazine.

He must have heard him or sensed he was awake, because Don snapped his head up and instantly smiled.

"Hey buddy." Closing the magazine, Don set it down on the bedside medical cupboard beside Charlie's bed and sat forward; "How you feeling?" He must have saw Charlie shiver, before he reached over and pulled the blanket up for him.

"Tired." Charlie mumbled, his eyes half lidded. His whole body felt heavy, and achy. And his head really hurt; "Feel strange."

"Strange how?" Don tilted his head worriedly.

"Hot and cold. Head...can't quite think straight. Tired a lot."

"I know buddy." Don said softly reaching over to pat his arm, leaving it there; "It's just the drugs they got you on, to help your infection, fever and concussion."

Charlie nodded and then winced, settling back and closing his eyes. He didn't like being on pain meds, they made his head foggy and he couldn't think. He hated it, his mind was everything to him, and he needed to be able to think. Now he couldn't.

Then he reopened them again finding Don staring. With an unreadable expression.

"What?"

"You really scared me for a minute there." Don finally said quietly, the mask on his face breaking showing a variety of emotions. Charlie paused furrowing his brow at that. Don never showed his emotions freely.

"When you collapsed at the office. I couldn't wake you. Then I find you bleeding and bruised. I didn't know what to think. God Charlie, I thought someone attacked you. Then I had to bring you to the hospital where they wouldn't tell me anything." Don let out a shaky sigh before running a hand over his face.

Charlie saw how tired and upset Don looked and felt terrible; "Sorry." He said in a small voice.

"Oh no Charlie." Don straightened up gulping feeling guilty; "I didn't mean...it wasn't your fault. You weren't thinking straight because you were sick. I just...please don't do that again ok? If you're sick or are overwhelmed. You tell me, no excuse."

"Ok Don."

"I need you safe Charlie." Don added and then paused as he stared at him. Not wanting to upset Charlie, but needing to know; "Why didn't you tell me about the bike crash?"

Charlie just stared at him for a long time, and seemed to shrink back from him.

"I'm not mad." Don said with a small smile; "Well I am, but I'm not going to yell at you buddy. Please just tell me why you kept it secret."

"Didn't want to worry you." Charlie murmured before his throat constricted and he suddenly coughed, his body shuddering.

Don immediately stood reaching to put the mask to Charlie's face. The doctors warned him this might happen, and the mask helped Charlie breath.

"Better?" Don asked after a moment and removed it again, but stayed standing.

"Sorry." Charlie murmured as Don was getting the water for Charlie, and held it out to him letting him have some sips.

"It's just...it was humiliating enough that I got sick, and couldn't help you, and you were both so worried about me not taking care of myself, that you manhandled into giving me a ride home. If you found out I couldn't even get home by myself without getting hurt, I'd...I'd never hear the end of it." Charlie let his eyes close for a moment, starting to drift off.

Don was left speechless, stunned at what Charlie of him.

"Charlie..."

"Was stupid I know. Just...didn't want to disappoint you."

"What no Charlie..." Don started but then paused as he watched Charlie's eyes closed and he was already fast asleep.

Don was left reeling with Charlie's admission. He never expected that. Charlie had kept his injury hidden because of him? Was he that scared of how he'd react?

Damn he had really messed up.

Because Charlie had been too scared to say anything, his injuries got worse.

This was his fault.

He was going to keep worrying about Charlie, no matter what, but his dad had a point about the FBI. And honestly, he liked working with Charlie. In future, he was going to keep a closer eye on Charlie though. To make sure this never happened again.

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"Hey Don is Charlie ok?" Megan asked Don as he entered the office, surprised to see him there.

Sighing Don nodded. He hadn't wanted to leave the hospital, or Charlie, but they still had an open case and Colby called that they used Charlie's equations and got a break on their robbers. The doctor assured him that Charlie was getting better and needed sleep anyway, but still he felt guilty.

"Yeah the doctor think he's going to be just fine. They're just trying to get his fever and infection down." Don murmured taking the file from Megan.

"Still can't believe he crashed his bike." Megan had been relieved to hear he hadn't been attacked.

"Yeah tell me about it. And the worst part is he was too scared to even tell me."

"What do you mean?" Megan furrowed her brow as they headed to the conference room.

"I dunno. Something Charlie said." Sighing Don shook his head refocusing; "So what we got?"

"Well Colby and David managed to comb through Charlie's notes that he left behind and found the algorithm he finished to track the robbers next possible target."

"That's great." Don said nodding at Colby and David to fill him as he entered the conference room.

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Two hours later, the FBI had the robbers in custody after a well created stakeout and arrest before the bad guys could do another robbery.

They found all the stuff they stole too, so the case was a slammed dunk.

All thanks to Charlie's math.

Don left Megan and the team to finish up the case as headed to the hospital. It was late in the evening now, he hadn't heard from his dad all day. And he wasn't sure whether that was good or bad.

But he supposed his dad would have called him in if Charlie had gotten worse.

Rushing into the county hospital, Don immediately noted how hectic it still was as he headed to Charlie's room.

As he entered he saw his dad dozing in a chair beside Charlie's bed, a newspaper in his lap.

Don slowly crept in the room, heading to Charlie who appeared to be asleep. He gently put his hand on Charlie's shoulder, just needing to touch him to be sure he was alive and ok.

His dad suddenly stirred, rubbing his eyes before spotting Don; "Don hi."

"Hi dad. Sorry to wake you."

"It's ok." He saved his hand; "How was work?"

"Well we got the robbers. Thanks to Charlie."

Alan smiled pleased; "He'll be happy to hear that."

"How is he?" Don asked looking back at Charlie, noticing he had some more colour to his cheeks, but still look sick.

"The doctor and nurses have been checking on him every hours, they say he's getting better. He's woken up a few times, briefly, being a little disorientated and confused, but he's mostly been sleeping."

Don nodded trying to process that; "Is that good or...?"

Alan shrugged as he stood to face him; "Dr William's say it is. That he needs rest."

"Where is the doctor?"

"He should be by soon to check on him again."

Again Don nodded.

"Some week huh?" Don murmured with a sigh.

"Yeah some week." Alan paused smiling at Charlie; "It's so strange seeing him so still and so quiet. I'm so used to him bustling around the house, working and talking aloud about what he's working on."

"Hmmm." Don grunted in agreement smirking; "I guess I'm getting used to having him bustling around the office too."

"So you're not going to fire him?" Alan quirked and eyebrow and Don rolled his eyes.

"As if I could try."

Suddenly the door opened and Dr Williams walked in.

Don straightened up trying to read his expressions to see how Charlie was doing. He smiled, and it seemed genuine, but Don was still hesitant.

"Hey. How's Charlie doing?"

"It's looking good." Dr Williams said reassuringly as he headed to check on Charlie again; "His fever has gone down. It's still a little high, but that's to be expected with the flu, and his infection."

"What about the infection?"

"The antibiotics seem to be working, it's pretty much gone now." Dr William's replied giving them big smiles; "It shouldn't be a problem for him now. It's just a case of making sure his stitches and bandage are kept dry and that the infection doesn't come back. But we can talk you through that."

"I'm sorry?" Don furrowed his brow sharing a look with his dad, but he looked equally confused.

"With the way he's progressing, providing he carries on this way, we can discharge him tomorrow."

"Discharge him?" Don's eyes widened as he looked fearfully at Charlie; "But he's still sick and he has a concussion!"

"Yes that's true." Dr Williams said diplomatically; "But there's really nothing more we can do for Charlie. As with any case of the flu, you know it's easily dealt with at home with rest, lots of fluid and keeping warm. That's all Charlie needs, and he can do that at home." Dr Williams turned to them gesturing with his hand; "Essentially, like the flu, the concussion will recover on it's own. All Charlie needs is someone to stay with him, monitor him and his symptoms. He can sleep, and it's best he does sleep, but someone will need to wake him every few hours and check his neural function is still ok, and well with his flu as well, he will definitely need someone with him to check his fever and symptoms. Make sure he's eating and drinking and resting. Does that sound like something you can do?" Dr Williams looked between the two men; "Because if you can't we can keep him here if you would prefer. It's not ideal...We usually find patients best recover when they are at home." Dr Williams finished.

"No we can do that." Alan said quickly before shooting Don a look; "Right Don?"

"Yeah I guess. Sure of course." Don paused; "If you think that's best for Charlie."

"Good. Ok. Well we can run through everything with you that you need to look for. Don't worry. Charlie will be fine."

The doctor then left and Don turned to Alan slightly dazed.

"Are you sure about this dad? Don't you think Charlie will be better off here, where the doctors can treat him?"

"You heard what he said Donnie, it's better for Charlie to come home. And well I've been here all day Don, the doctors have only been in a few times. Charlie's been alone the rest of the time. We're his family, we can look after him. Right Don? Unless you have work?"

Don hesitated. He didn't want to leave his dad to care for Charlie alone, it sounded like a big responsibility. And there was no way he was going to abandon Charlie when he needed help, but he was just hesitant in case he screwed up and Charlie got worse.

"No I mean I can be there. We've closed our cases and I do have some personal days saved up. Of course, yeah for Charlie of course I'll help." Don turned to Charlie taking his hand in his own, giving him a small squeeze. He'd do anything to help Charlie.


	9. Chapter 9

Charlie was mostly out of it all night, having trouble staying awake.

But he vaguely remembered, waking up a few times in the night. Having a coughing fit or throwing up.

There were voices and people there helping him, trying to assure him it was going to be ok.

He could have sworn a couple of them sounded like his dad and Don. But that didn't seem right.

Nothing seemed right. Everything was wrong. Just wrong.

"Charlie?" A voice was calling to him, and through his foggy haze he fought to hang onto that voice. It was familiar, and comforting.

"Chuck? Hey buddy? You hear me?"

"Don't call me chuck." Charlie grumbled, blinking his eyes open, coming face to face with Don's smiling face, as he was sitting in a chair by his bedside.

"Whatever you say buddy." Don chuckled, looking at something the other side of him.

"Charlie?"

Charlie shifted his head and smiled when he saw his dad.

"Hi dad."

"Hey Charlie. How are you feeling?"

Charlie paused for a moment considering that. His head still hurt, but it wasn't as bad. Mostly he just felt...

"Hungry."

Don scoffed and Charlie turned to him frowning.

"That's good buddy." Don patted his arm; "Let me get your doctor, see what we can get you."

He went to stand but Alan straightened up knowing Don and Charlie needed to have a talk; "No Don it's alright I'll go. I need to talk to the doctor anyway." As he left he sent Don a look, and Don nodded in thanks.

"What time is it?" Charlie said squinting as he craned his head to look outside seeing it was dark.

"Late." Don said with a sigh before he straightened up; "Oh and I just wanted to tell you. We caught those robbers. Thanks to that algorithm of yours."

"Really?" Charlie brightened; "Oh good. I'm glad I could help."

"Yeah and the doctor says you're doing better. The infections cleared up, and we can take you home in the morning. That's great right?"

"Oh yeah great."

There was a moment of silence between them and Don tried to wrack his brain for what he was going to say. He wasn't good at this whole talking thing, especially with Charlie.

"Listen Charlie about what you said earlier."

"What I said?" Charlie repeated looking confused.

Don paused tilting his head wondering if Charlie even remembered; "Oh um well when we spoke last you said you didn't want to tell me about the bike crash because you thought you'd disappoint me."

"Oh."

"What did you mean?"

"Oh I dunno. I don't really remember..." Charlie lied.

"Charlie." Don said in that tone, that said he knew he was lying and he wasn't letting up.

Charlie turned to him and sighed turning to look at the ceiling.

"I know that dad came to you saying I was sick. That's why you came to check on me at lunch, and why you were so insistent on driving me home from CalSci."

"Ok yeah so what if I was going to drive you home? I've done it before."

"I'm not a kid anymore Don. I don't need you to baby sit me, or drive me home from school."

"Well clearly you do if you're going to pull crap like that." Don snapped before instantly regretting it, seeing Charlie's face.

Sighing, Don rubbed his face; "Ok look Charlie. What do you want from me? I'm your brother, and I'm going to worry about you. I'm going to protect you. So is dad."

"I just..."

"What?"

Charlie turned to look at him a pained expression; "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course Charlie. You can ask me anything."

"Do you like working with me?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course I do buddy. You're a great help."

Charlie looked saddened by that and Don didn't know why.

"Come on Charlie talk to me. I can't read minds you know. What is it?"

"Do you ever wonder where we would be if I didn't help you on cases?"

"What? No, I can't say I have Charlie. Why?"

"I just do sometimes." Charlie turned to look down at the blanket as he played with the hem.

Don's head was spinning. Had Charlie been hiding this all this time? It was now he really wished he could know what was going on in Charlie's head.

"You know what Charlie. I don't care where we might have been, I just care where we are now. And I hate all that time we lost out on when we drifted apart. I don't ever want to go back to that. You are an important part of my life now, maybe one of the most important person's. Ok?"

Charlie was left dumbstruck, Don was speaking so fierce Charlie knew Don meant every word. And it was so not what he expected.

"Ok." Charlie said finally. There were still lots of thoughts going on in his head, but that one made Charlie feel a bit better.

"Ok good." Don sighed in relief, taking a chance and reaching out to take Charlie's hand.

Charlie looked down at their hands before at Don. For a moment seeing pure worry and fear on his face, it made him pause.

"You know I love you right buddy?"

Charlie hesitated, seeing this was really important to Don. And he was surprised. He knew Don loved him, and he loved Don, but they never really said it.

"I know Don. I love you too."

Don smiled, squeezing his hand.

It was then their dad walked in with a plate of food and Dr Williams.

"Hello Charlie. I hear you're feeling better. You ready to see if you can eat something?"

Charlie just nodded eyeing the plate as his dad set it down on a table and spun it to him so it rested above his legs.

Sitting up, Charlie winced at the movement before looking at the doctor.

"So I can go home soon?"

"Well you are doing better so it's looking like it. But let's see if you can keep this down shall we?"

Charlie was certainly willing to try, he was starving. And the idea of going home sounded great. He hated hospitals.

0o0o0oNumb3rs0o0o0o0o

Charlie was fuming as he was sitting in a wheelchair in his room, drumming his fingers impatiently.

"Is this really necessary?" Charlie snapped, glaring up at his brother and Dr Williams; "I can walk you know."

"It's policy." Dr Williams shrugged with a smile; "Atleast until you get outside. Then it's up to your brother."

"Don." Charlie whined, but Don just shook his head as he moved to behind the wheelchair.

"Sorry buddy. No walking for you. Doctor's order for rest."

"Fine." Charlie glowered sinking in the chair crossing his arms.

Don thanked the doctors for their care of Charlie, and once Charlie got over his little tantrum he did too.

Dr Williams even gave Don his phone number in case he needed to call with any questions or worries about Charlie, which Don thought was really useful.

As they got outside, Charlie seemed to brighten about the prospect of finally going home, which pleased Don.

When the doctors told Charlie he couldn't go to work for the next week or two, Charlie had gotten really upset. Don knew Charlie's work was everything to him.

As they got to Don's car, Charlie started to get up.

"Need a hand buddy." Don quickly moved to take Charlie's arm, but he waved him off.

"Jeez Don, I only have a concussion and the flu. I can walk."

Don raised an eyebrow at the snippy tone, trying to remember the doctor's warned him one of the symptoms of the concussion was irritability and personality changes. He hoped it wasn't permanent.

"Alright. Just trying to help buddy. You do have stitches remember. Have to be careful not to rip them."

"Oh right." Charlie forgot about them, relenting and letting Don help him into the passenger side of the car.

When he was finally settled, Charlie took a moment to close his eyes, feeling suddenly exhausted, and his head was pounding bad.

"You ok Charlie?" Don asked as he got in the car, eyeing his brother closely.

"Tired. Wow when did it get so hard to get into a car?"

Don nodded in sympathy; "The doctors said just because they're releasing you doesn't mean you're back to normal. You're still sick and injured. You need rest."

"Yeah yeah." Charlie sighed as Don started driving, focusing on looking out the window.

But for some reason the blurs of cars and landscape outside the window were making him nauseas. He rolled his head to watch Don instead.

"Atleast I can get some of my cognitive emergence theory work done whilst I'm recovering."

"Nuh uh Charlie." Don said simply shaking his head; "No work. You heard the doctors."

"Yeah I know no FBI cases or going to CalSci."

"No Charlie. No work period." Don looked at Charlie to make sure the message was clear; "Your mind needs rest, and having to concentrate on any kind of work will just aggravate your symptoms. Make your headaches worse. So no math work of any kind, no TV or cellphones, no electronics at all."

Charlie glowered; "So what am I supposed to do?"

"Rest."

This was going to be a difficult few weeks.

"That's all I've been doing Don." Charlie whined, feeling really agitated and tired. His head was starting to pound again, and he felt nausea all of a sudden.

Don looked at him a couple of times; "Charlie? You ok? Do you want me to pull over?"

Unable to speak knowing he would throw up if he did, Charlie just shook his head closing his eyes.

"Alright buddy. Just take is easy. We're nearly home. But if you think you're going to be sick, you let me know ok?"

There was no response again.

"Charlie?" Don paused to look at Charlie quickly, and was surprised to see he was fast asleep. His skin was still too pale and clammy.

The doctors had given a very lengthy discussion to Don and his father, telling them that although Charlie's fever had gone down from serious levels, it was still rather high and that was going to make Charlie a little out of it for a while. He was still suffering from the flu, and those symptoms could be worsened by his concussion. They warned Charlie may seem worse before he gets better, and that was to be expected. Don had to say he wasn't sure he could be prepared for that. He hated seeing Charlie hurt or sick, and being unable to help him feel better, it sucked. Especially, knowing he was responsible.

But he was going to make sure Charlie didn't get worse.

He'd taken the rest of the week off as personal days, warning Megan not to call him under any circumstance. Charlie was his focus right now.

Nothing else mattered.


	10. Chapter 10

When Don pulled up to the house, Charlie was still asleep. He was debating letting him sleep, and trying to get him into the house with his dad's help. But the doctors had wanted Charlie to wake up every few hours, to make sure his head was ok, and to take his medication with some food and drink.

They had been given antibiotics to give Charlie along with some Tylenol for his head. But they had emphasised Charlie had to eat and drink regularly, he would need it to keep his strength up. And if he was going to keep throwing up, he needed to stay hydrated.

It was a lot to remember, but Don was determined to stick to every word of it.

Getting out the car and going to the passenger door, Don opened it and gently shook Charlie; "Hey buddy. Wake up, we're home."

Their dad was already home, preparing for Charlie's arrival.

Charlie's face scrunched up and a hand came up to rub his eyes. For a moment, he looked like a little kid as he looked at him.

"Don?"

"Yeah chuck, we're home. Come on." He gently gripped Charlie's arm and helped him.

Charlie's legs buckled, and Don had to wrap his arm around his back to keep him upright; "Woah you ok chuck."

"Don't call me that." Charlie growled but it came out very weakly, and it was then Don noticed Charlie was shaking.

"You think you can make it to the door?"

Don didn't know what happened. Charlie seemed fine earlier like he was getting better, now he seemed worse again. Now he understood the doctor's warning.

"Don." Charlie warned right before he doubled over and threw up.

"Oh it's ok buddy." Don offered rubbing his back.

The front door suddenly open and his dad rushed out; "Don? Charlie? Oh my god." He ran over; "Charlie are you alright?"

"It's ok buddy." Don said helping him straighten up and lean against the car.

"Dad?" Charlie mumbled, trying to focus on his dad and brother, but everything was a little blurry.

Touching his son's forehead, finding it too hot, Alan shared a glance with Don.

"Come on Charlie. Let's get you inside." Don said taking command and leading him towards the front door. Alan taking the other side.

They got Charlie inside and set him down on the sofa.

He swayed slightly, blinking rapidly.

"Dad can you get some water?" Don asked before kneeling down in front of Charlie.

"Hey buddy?" Don said trying to catch his eyes.

Charlie finally focused on him and smiled; "Hey Don."

"Hey Charlie. You feel ok?"

"Feel woozy." Charlie grimaced, squeezing his eyes shut; "Sick. Everything spinning. Tired."  
Don could see the effort to get home from the hospital really took it out of Charlie. Man he was really sick.

Charlie started to lean back against the sofa, his eyes closing.

"Ok Charlie. Charlie." Don said quickly helping him sit up; "I know you want to go to sleep but I need you to stay awake for a minute."

Alan came back with the glass of water and Don pulled the bottle of pills out of his pocket. He hoped that if Charlie took the pills now, and got some water in him, it would stay down whilst he slept.

Getting his antibiotic and Tylenol pills out, Don held them out in hand as he held out the water.

"Ok buddy. Time to take your pills."

Charlie paused looking at the pills and glared; "No."

"No?" Don repeated his eyes widening, and he looked at his dad; "It's not really a suggestion Charlie. You need them."

"No." Charlie whined; "Make everything fuzzy."

"I know Charlie." Don sighed, really not looking forward to having to fight with Charlie right now; "But you need them if you're going to get better."

"No!"

"Charlie..."

"Charlie if you take the pills you can then get some sleep ok?" Alan said diplomatically.

Charlie glared at Don, but shakily took the pills and downed the glass of water.

He shoved it back at Don and was already closing his eyes.

"Charlie." Don snapped.

"What?" Charlie huffed.

"You need to just stay up for a minute longer and let the pills go down. Or they'll come back up."

Charlie grumbled something that Don knew wasn't nice, but he opened his eyes and stayed awake for a minute longer.

Then he fell fast asleep. Alan just covered him with the blanket and followed Don into the kitchen.

"Why does he always have to fight with me?" Don huffed shoving the glass into the sink.

"He's not well Don. He's not thinking clearly."

"I know I know." Don sighed rubbing his face; "I just...I hate seeing him like this. Not being able to do more."

"I feel the same way."

"Hey you hid all the electronics right?" Don said quickly pointing at him.

Alan held up a hand nodding; "Charlie's laptop, his phone, the house phone and TV remote are all hidden. I've even locked the garage and hidden all his notebooks."

"Good."

"Do you really think that's all necessary? I mean you saw him. He's not exactly stable enough to do any work?"

"Yeah well I wouldn't put it past Charlie right now. Being told he can't work, who knows how he's going to react."

"Hmm. So I prepared your old room for you with some clean sheets. I set Charlie's room up too, but I guess we'll let him sleep down here for now and move him later."

"Yeah," Don checked his watch; "The doctors said to wake him up every four hours so we got some time. I'm going to take a shower ok?"

"Sure thing I'll watch him."

As Don was showering, he couldn't help but think about Charlie. What was he saying about where they would be if they hadn't started working together? It left a bad feeling in his gut. He'd never thought about it really but maybe he should. It was true that after their mom died, Don moved back home to be close to Charlie and dad, but they still hadn't been close. It took time. He visited them now and then, but only out of obligation, it wasn't until Charlie started working cases that the two of them started to break through their tension and come close again.

If they hadn't, maybe they would still be distant. Don hated to think of that possibility. Especially, because he was the one who pushed Charlie away in the first place.

As kids they were fairly close, but as they got into high school the tensions grew. Because of Charlie needing extra tutoring and attention, and being smarter than Don, it just brought up a lot of issues. Like their parents favouring Charlie, Don having to look after Charlie and himself. When he went to college, he chose one far away from Charlie on purpose. Taking a job just as far away. They barely spoke for years, being practically strangers.

It just got worse when their mom got sick. Don came home, but Charlie pulled away from all of them. Doing that stupid math problem, P vs NP or whatever. He never even saw mom when she was sick. Don hated him for it, and could never understand.

He still didn't really. But he did get Charlie a lot more than he used to.

He was mad at Charlie for a long time, but in time he forgave him. Came to understand in some twisted way, it was just too hard for Charlie to deal with. He and mom had been closer than the rest of them, and losing her was just too much for Charlie to face. Math always held a solution, there was always an answer, but mom's illness there just wasn't one. You couldn't control it, so Charlie focused on something he could control.

Don was just glad Charlie promised he wouldn't go down that rabbit hole again. He got obsessive sure, and look where he was now. But Don knew it would never get as bad as it had been.

Don just had to make sure he never lost Charlie again.

0o0o00oNumb3rs0o0o0o0o

_A ten year old Charlie sat on the sofa swinging his legs, as he was reading an advanced math textbook._

_"Come on Donnie. You need to focus. Let's do this again." His dad's voice echoed from the dining room, causing Charlie to look up and listen._

_"Dad! Please, I'm never going to get this." Don whined, and there was a thud that followed._

_"I know it's frustrating but you have to persevere Don. You will get it, you just have to try."_

_"I am trying!"_

_"Wait I have a math book that might help." There was the sound of a chair scraping and his dad leaving._

_"Don? You alright honey? "That was their mom, it made Charlie smile at her voice, and he slowly slid off the sofa, leaving his book there, to creep to the dining room. Watching as mom headed over to Don, as he had his face in his hands._

_"It's ok honey. You can only try your best." Mom gently caressed Don's head, and he smiled shyly at her; "You'll get it. I know you will. I believe in you."_

_"It's not fair. Why does Charlie just get this instantly, and I find it so difficult?"_

_"You're just different Don. Your minds work differently."_

_"He's better than me." Don said angrily throwing a pencil on the table._

_"Oh no sweetie." Mom pulled a chair out and sat down, and Charlie pressed himself to the doorframe to watch; "He's not better. And you're not worse. It doesn't matter whether he gets maths quicker than you, all that matters is the type of person you are. And who you are is a kind, smart, funny, tough, amazing boy. Your father and I love you both equally and that will never change. It's just...Charlie just needs special care. Do you understand?"_

_"I guess." Don mumbled._

_"I'll just check on your father." Mom stood kissed Don the head and walked out._

_Charlie watched as Don dropped his head to the table with a thud and groan._

_"Don?" Charlie said quietly as he crept closer._

_"What do you want Charlie?"_

_"I want to help." Charlie said sliding onto the chair beside Don and reached for his math's homework._

_Don lifted his head and glared; "No Charlie!" He slammed his hand on the paper making Charlie jump; "I can't let you do my homework anymore. Mum and dad already grounded me twice for that, and they'll kill me if I let you do it again."_

_"But...I can help."_

_"I don't care. God Charlie can't you just leave me alone? You're so annoying. Smart ass." Don grumbled snatching the paper back and turning his back on him as he started scribbling angrily._

_"Sorry Don." Charlie slouched, tears forming in his eyes as he slid off the chair and walked away._

0o0oo0oNumb3rs0o00o0o0

"Charlie? Hey Charlie? Wake up."

Charlie snapped his eyes open startled, and blinked to see his adult brother Don leaning over him staring at him strangely.

"You ok?"

"What?" Charlie murmured moving to sit up as he rubbed his face, wondering where that dream came from.

"You were talking in your sleep. You ok?" Don held out a glass of water to him as he sat on the edge of the coffee table.

"What was I saying?" Charlie said taking the water and sipping it shakily. He felt like singing with relief at the cool soothing water easing his sore throat.

"I'm sorry."

Charlie frowned at Don.

"That's what you kept saying over and over as you tossed and turned. 'I'm sorry,' 'I'm sorry.'" Tilting his head Don studied Charlie; "What were you dreaming about?"

"I...don't remember." Charlie lied, a shivering wracking his body as he fumbled for the blanket to warm up.

"Here let me." Don reached over and pulled the blanket up.

Charlie watched him and then stared at Don hesitantly, finding his niceness a little strange.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"You feel ok?" Don reached over and touched Charlie's forehead; "Dad's just getting the thermometer, but you still feel too hot."

"I don't know." Charlie said staring into space, unable to shake the dream. It had been so vivid.

"You ok Charlie?" Don narrowed his eyes, finding he seemed a little off.

It was that moment their dad walked in with the thermometer.

"Here you go son." Alan said softly as he popped the thermometer in Charlie's mouth and waited for the result. Then he lifted it to his face, his mouth setting in a thin line.

"103.5. Still very high." Alan looked worriedly at Don.

"You think you're up to trying to eat something?" Alan asked his youngest.

Charlie blinked turning to look at his dad for the first time; "What?"

"Are you hungry Charlie?"

"I don't know."

Charlie was really out of it.

"Ok well let's see if you can ok buddy."

It was like Charlie was sleep walking the rest of the day. He was awake, but he acted like he was asleep.

They managed to convince him to eat something, although it took a while. Charlie taking little bites, and then playing with his food. After that Charlie got some sleep again.

Don tried to find things to do, to keep busy. He watched some TV, read the paper, but mostly he just watched Charlie sleep. Every now and then Charlie would toss and turn, mumbling something like he was having a nightmare, and Don reached out to reassure him. Then Charlie just fell back asleep.

Don couldn't help but wonder exactly what Charlie was dreaming about.

Later that night, Charlie threw up dinner and seemed to worsen even more.

They got Charlie up to use the bathroom, and helped him to his bedroom. He seemed to be more relaxed in his own bed, but his fever was still fairly high, and his pain evident.

Don and Alan were beside themselves with worry over the next couple of days. Just keeping a close eye on Charlie, trying to get him to eat, drink and sleep. But he was still really delirious, and kept throwing up.

Thankfully, Charlie's cut wasn't infected again, and his bruises seemed to be healing. But his concussion and flu were getting worse.

They agreed to shift off sleeping to watch Charlie. To make sure his fever didn't get worse overnight. When it came to Charlie, it was always seemed to get worse.


	11. Chapter 11

Don was lightly dozing in an armchair in Charlie room on the third day when he was startled awake. As an FBI officer, he had trained himself to be a light sleeper, and nap whenever he could. He just wasn't sure what had woken him up though.

Until he heard Charlie's whimpering.

Jumping up he rushed to Charlie's bed finding Charlie on his side facing him, practically curled up in a foetal position, the blanket pulled right up this neck. But he could clearly see Charlie was really pale and sweating.

His brow was scrunched up and he was letting out small moans as he trembled.

"Charlie?" Don said softly, worried he was having a nightmare. He reached over to touch Charlie's forehead, thinking he felt too hot, but then he'd seemed like that all day and yet was ok.

"Charlie?" Don shook Charlie gently, and Charlie's eyelids fluttered but he didn't wake.

Now Don was getting worried.

He grabbed the thermometer from the bedside cabinet and checked Charlie's temp.

103.6. It had been pretty much steady at that level the last few days. Both worrying and comforting that it wasn't going higher, but still...too high.

Charlie trembled and groaned, and Don couldn't take it anymore; "Charlie! Wake up!"

0o0o0oNumb3rs0o0oo0oo0

_"Charlie! Dammit! Enough is enough!" Don's voice bellowed from the garage doorway making Charlie flinch, but he didn't turn around. Just continued talking to himself as he wrote furiously on the chalkboard. They littered the garage, covering the walls, the ceilings and even the floor._

_Charlie was currently writing on one that was leaning against the wall._

_"CHARLIE! Are you even listening to me! You haven't visited mom in a month! She needs you and you're here doing some stupid math problem! What the hell is wrong with you?!"_

_Charlie didn't even react, pausing to furiously rub his face leaving a trail of chalk across his cheek, before carrying on._

_Enraged, Don rushed over grabbed the chalkboard Charlie was writing on and tossed it across the room, making it crack._

_Charlie just stood there chalk raised for a moment._

_"Mom is going to die and you're just sitting here! Dammit Charlie answer me!" Don grabbed Charlie yanking him around to face him, gripping him so tight, his nails were hurting Charlie._

_Charlie turned to look at him and Don paused for a moment, taking in his bloodshot eyes, pale complexion, and then his rumpled clothes he had been wearing for a week that now looked far too big on him._

_Muttering under his breath, Charlie stared into space and Don just shook his head letting Charlie go in disgust._

_"I'm done Charlie. I'm not doing this anymore." Don waved Charlie off heading towards the door; "I've tried to help you, to make sure you ate and slept. For mom and dad. But if you don't even care about mom then you know what I don't care what you do. Just stay the hell out of my life. I'm done Charlie."_

_And Don walked out._

_Charlie blinked for a moment slowly looking to where Don walked away._

_"D—don." Charlie stuttered feeling suddenly empty and lost. He took a few steps after Don, but his legs gave out and he fell to his knees._

_"Don? Wait..."_

"Don...please...wait...no...Don...!"

Charlie just kept crying his name, sounding so desperate and lost it broke Don's heart.

"Charlie? Chuck? Come on please wake up buddy. Please. CHARLIE!" Don snapped shaking him violently.

Immediately Charlie's eyes snapped open, before squeezing shut again as tears fell.

"D-Don?"

"Hey Charlie I'm right here." Don said quickly moving to catch Charlie's eye with a terrified smile.

"Don? You left me." Charlie whispered staring at him in fear and pain, before trying to turn his head away.

"What? No buddy I've been right here. I'm right here." Don said gripping his shoulder tightly, as he put his other hand on Charlie's head.

"Don? Please don't go...I'm sorry."

Don realised Charlie had to be delirious, thinking he was still dreaming.

Kneeling down beside Charlie's head, he ruffled his hair; "Charlie? Charlie come on look at me."

Slowly Charlie's drifted to look at him, his look was far off though, his eyes glassy.

"Don?" Charlie murmured his voice breaking, but Don could see Charlie was finally looking at him.

"Hey buddy. Yeah I'm right here. You just had a bad dream but it's ok. You're ok."

"You left..."

"When?" Don furrowed his brow worried.

"I'm sorry Don. I'm so sorry."

"Hey you have nothing to be sorry for." Don was getting really worried now. Charlie wasn't making any sense, and seemed so upset. He was starting to panic, having no idea what to do.

"I wasn't there. I let you down. You hate me."

"No Charlie." Don said fiercely, utterly shocked; "Of course I don't. Come on you're my brother." He tried to smile at Charlie, but he was really worried. He didn't know what was going on and he was worried about how scared Charlie was. His fever was really messing with his head, what if it was going to damage his brain?

"I let you down. I'm a bad person."

"No Charlie..."

"I let mom down."

Don instantly stilled; "What?" He asked slowly; "Why would you say that?"

"I wasn't there." Charlie's voice barely audible and his eyes turned to look at Don, full of fear and anguish; "When she died."

"Oh Charlie." Don stopped himself and gulped searching Charlie's eyes. Seeing the tears. It broke his heart. It had become like an unspoken rule between the two of them, that they would never talk about what happened when mom died.

Now as Don looked back on it, he knew he had been overly harsh on Charlie. He had just been so mad. But he wasn't mad anymore.

"No Charlie. Look it's ok. Mom understood, we understand. It's ok."

"No." Charlie turned to bury his head in the pillow. His head feeling like it was going to explode, his body feeling so disconnected he felt like crying. Nothing felt right, and Don wasn't listening to him.

"Charlie..."

"M'sorry." Charlie's eyes dropped again, darkness calling him again; "Know you hate me. That why you only see me for help with work."

Don reeled back as if he had been slapped. What the hell? Where had that come from?

"God Charlie no that's not true..." Don trailed off as Charlie backed away from him, flipped onto his other side, trembling and continuing to mutter to himself.

"Charlie?" Don instantly tensed, rushing to stand up and lean over Charlie. He felt his head again and his frowned deepened. Now he really felt too hot.

"Dammit."

Don rushed to use the thermometer on Charlie, and swore at the result.

"104."

His fever was getting worse.

He needed to do something.

0o0o0oNumb3rs0o0o0o0

Don had panicked and woken his dad rushed. As his dad tried to help bring Charlie's fever down, Don called Dr Williams from the hospital.

He could face armed bad guys pointing guns at him, but facing the possibility of Charlie being sick left Don in hysteria.

The doctor had been surprising calm as he reassured Don that this was a good sign. Leaving Don more confused and angry. But he had assured Don that this meant Charlie's flu was reaching it's peak, and once his fever broke Charlie should start to get better.

It might be a little rough for Charlie, but his fever would break. They had been advised on some methods to help bring Charlie's fever down.

And they eventually worked.

Finally around 2 am Charlie's fever broke and started to come down.

It was like Don could finally breath, knowing Charlie was getting better.

Alan had practically threatened Don to finally get some sleep whilst he watched Charlie.

Surprisingly, Don got about eight hours sleep. Probably the longest sleep he'd gotten in ages.

He took a shower, changed into some old t-shirt and jeans he had at the house and headed straight for Charlie's room. But found it empty.

Panic set in at first, until he heard voices downstairs.

Bounding down the stairs, Don entered the dining room shocked to see Charlie sitting at the dining room table, wearing sweats with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders as he was sipping what looked like soup.

"Morning Don." Charlie said looking up at him and smiled. His skin still seemed pale and he looked shaky, but he looked...almost back to normal.

"Hey buddy." Don frowned shocked at the sudden turn around; "How you feeling?"

"Better." Charlie grinned before tucking into his soup.

"Yeah you look better." Don murmured moving to sit down beside Charlie, patting his shoulder in relief.

Alan entered from the kitchen holding two plates; "Ah Donnie good there you are. Just in time." He handed a plate of pancakes to Don, as he sat at the head of the table with his own plate.

"Oh thanks dad."

"So Charlie's better." Alan informed Don, grinning brightly.

Don was still dazed by the sudden transformation; "Yeah I see that. When did that happen?"

Alan just shrugged; "One moment he was sleeping, the next he just woke up and was more coherent. Said he was hungry."

"You know I'm right here." Charlie grunted before sighing and shrugging; "I still got a headache and my throat's killing me, but I do feel a lot better. No more nausea."

"That's great buddy."

"Yeah so maybe I can have my laptop back that you hid." Charlie rounded on Don raising an eyebrow.

Don just smirked; "Can't do that buddy. Doctor's orders. Not until you're fully healed."

Instead of an angry snappy remark, Charlie just sighed and nodded; "Yeah ok."

Amazed Don just stared at Charlie. He really was getting better, no irritability, hungry, admitting his symptoms.

"Oh I forgot the orange juice." Alan paused rushing back into the kitchen.

Pleased for a moment alone, Don shifted to face Charlie; "So buddy. How much do you remember from last night?"

Charlie paused to consider that before shrugging; "Nothing much really. I vaguely remember sleeping in my room and waking up a few times with you and dad there." He paused to look at Don with a small smile; "Thanks for everything you and dad did to help me. Dad told me I wasn't exactly the easiest patient." He bore a wry smile before turning away.

"It's alright. It wasn't your fault. You were sick." Don reasoned before turning to look at his food blankly. He didn't look like he was lying, so that meant he didn't remember.

A part of Don knew he should just let it go, everything Charlie confessed. He was delirious after all, it probably didn't mean anything.

But for some reason Don just couldn't.

There was so much between them that had been unresolved and unsaid, it just felt like one more thing was going to tip it over the edge. Don didn't want to suddenly have a huge blowout with Charlie one day when all their issues came to a head. They needed to have a serious talk. And soon.


	12. Chapter 12

It was a week before the doctors finally signed Charlie off to going back to work at CalSci, but Don had made it another week before he allowed Charlie back at the FBI. Making sure his headaches were gone and he was back to normal.

Things started to return to the way they were. Charlie consulting back for them, like he used to. Like nothing happened.

Don couldn't stop thinking about what Charlie said, but had wanted to wait until he was better. Besides, he had needed time to gather his thoughts about how to confront Charlie.

He picked a night he knew his father was on a date to go to the house to see Charlie. Their caseload was low, and they just wrapped up another case so it was perfect.

Using his key, Don entered the house with a deep breath, preparing himself for what he was going to say.

"Hey Charlie? Chuck? You here."

"Why do you continue to call me Chuck?"

Don peered around the door, smiling as he watched Charlie laying on the sofa in the living to his left, setting a book down on his chest and trying to glare at Don.

Shutting the door Don shrugged; "It's fun." Then he walked over to Charlie; "What are you doing?"

"Oh just reading." Charlie murmured picking the book up and closing it as he sat up, setting it down on the table.

"Advanced Mathematics." Don read the cover as he walked over and frowned; "Hey why are you reading this? Don't you already know everything in it." He picked it up curiously and flipped open the cover seeing Charlie's name written inside.

"Yeah I read it in high school." Charlie replied yawning and stretching.

"And you're reading it again because...?"

Pausing Charlie eyed the book in Don's hand with a strange expression on his face; "I don't know. Just felt like it."

Don studied him for a moment, having a feeling it had something to do with his dreams.

"You know I'm surprised to see you're not working." Don hedged, eyeing him sideways.

"Yeah I was just taking a break."

"You? A break?" Don feigned shock.

Glaring, Charlie shook his head; "I can take a break, most of the time I just chose not to. But I guess if the last few weeks have taught me anything is that sleep and food are important."

"You didn't know that beforehand?"

Charlie stood up quickly and nodded at Don; "So you hungry? I guess dad's running late."

"Dad's got a date Charlie." Don reminded him following him towards the kitchen.

Stopping in the dining room, Charlie looked at Don confused before realisation hit; "Oh right yeah. The caterer. That seems pretty serious now." He grinned amused heading into the kitchen.

"Yeah he seems happy. It's nice."

"As long as he's happy." Charlie murmured, opening the fridge and perusing what they had. "Hey! Check it out. Want leftovers?" Charlie pulled out a tub and looked smugly at Don.

Don just eyed the tub and scrunched his face up; "Charlie. That's dad's leftover pasta. It's been there for 5 days."

"Oh." Charlie looked at it for a moment; "So no?"

"I'll tell you what. Pizza?" Don offered.

"You buying?" Charlie countered raising an eyebrow as he pulled out a couple of beers and handed one to Don.

"Your house."

"Oh so I have to provide the food." Charlie scoffed; "Is that why you come here almost every night. To sponge of your dear little brother."

Charlie meant it as a joke, but Don stilled for a moment.

Chuckling undeterred, Charlie just pulled out his phone dialling the pizza place; "Pepperoni right?" He asked as it rung, Don nodded blankly. Quickly sipping his beer to hide his fazed expression. Yeah they really needed to have this talk.

0o0o0o0o0oNumb3rs0o0o00oo0

"Don? Hey Don you ok?"

Don blinked from staring at the TV of the football game, not really watching it, to Charlie sitting beside him watching him.

They had talked about some random things whilst they ate the pizza, and then moved to watch the game. Don must have drifted for a moment.

"Hmm?"

"You seem a little distracted. You didn't even cheer when they scored. You alright?"

"Yeah sure." Don said on automatic. His reflex response, and then kicked himself for it; "You know what, actually no."

"Oh ok. Want to talk about it?"

Turning to him, Don sat up; "Yeah I do."

Surprised because Don never wanted to talk, Charlie quickly moved to turn off the TV sensing it was important; "Ok Don. What is it?"

Don paused looking down at the beer in his hands as he picked at the label; "Charlie are you happy? Working with me I mean."

Blinking, Charlie frowned and Don lifted his head to him.

Smiling Charlie shrugged; "Of course."

"Are you though?"

"What? What are you talking about? Where's this coming from Don?"

"What do you remember from when you were sick?"

"Erm I dunno. Bits and pieces I guess. I was pretty out of it. Why? Did something happen?"

"You...said some things."

"Ok." Charlie prompted, wondering where this was going. Judging by Don's face, it was pretty serious.

"When you were in the hospital you asked me if I liked working with you."

Charlie's eyes widened and he tilted his head curiously; "And what did you say?"

"That I did, that you were a great help."

"Ok great."

Don narrowed his eyes at Charlie making him shift self consciously; "You're not upset by that."

"By what?" Charlie sighed leaning forward; "Don you're not making sense."

"When I said that to you in hospital you seemed upset. And you asked me if I ever thought about where we would be if we hadn't started working together."

That got a reaction as Charlie's face changed and he looked away quickly; "Oh."

"Charlie. Why would you ask me that?"

"I dunno. You know I wasn't exactly in my right mind then." He chuckled nervously as he stood up gathering up the empty pizza boxes and shrugged; "It probably doesn't mean anything."

"Probably?"

"It doesn't Don." Charlie made a quick exit and Don knew that he had hit a nerve.

Following him into the kitchen, Don knew he had to push harder; "Charlie I know you think I hate you."

Charlie instantly stilled as he was putting the pizza boxes in the trash. He straightened up slowly turning to face Don with a horrified expression.

"What? Don that's crazy. Of course I don't think that."

"Really?" Don said dubiously; "You're sure? Because you know now would be the time to tell me."

"Look Don I don't know what you're talking about, and I really should be getting back to work." Charlie tried to leave again, heading towards his room.

But as he made his way through the kitchen, Don rushed after him.

"Charlie I know this is about mom."

Charlie stopped again closing his eyes and when he turned he looked sad; "Mom?"

Softening, Don held out a hand; "Come on Charlie sit down. I think we need to have a talk."

Relieved when Charlie sat down, Don headed to the kitchen to grab more beers. As he handed one to Charlie, Don sat at the head of the table facing him; "I'm not leaving until we talk Charlie. And I'm not going to let this go."

"Talk about what?"

"You pick Charlie." Don waved his hand; "We both know there is a lot of unresolved issues here, things that we silently agreed not to talk about. But I think we need to."

"Like mom?"

Don nodded.

"What did I say?" Charlie murmured twisting the bottle in his hand.

"You were having a nightmare. I was watching you, I tried to wake you but it took a while. You just kept calling my name saying that I left you. Then you kept apologising and saying I hated you." Don hesitated before adding softly; "Because you weren't there when mom died."

Instead of being shocked Charlie just nodded, clearly that wasn't just a delusional thing, but something Charlie had been thinking for a while.

"Charlie. Come on what's going on?"

"Well let's be honest Don, things haven't exactly been easy

between us."

"I know buddy. I hate that."

"Do you really?"

Don paused tilting his head; "Does this have something to do with you thinking I only come to about work? Because you know I hang out here a lot, have dinner with you, we talk about lots of stuff."

"Yeah that's true." Charlie paused looking into space for a moment; "But I mean mostly it's about work isn't it? I mean you stop by to talk about a case, and we end up talking about other things."

"Do you think I'm taking advantage of you Charlie?"

"No no it's not that." Charlie sighed running a hand over his face. He really didn't want to dredge all this up but he saw he had no choice; "It's just...Well it's all my fault."

"What is?"

"Everything." Charlie shrugged gesturing between them; "Why we were never close as kids, why we drifted apart, why you only come to me for cases."

"Charlie..." Don started, shaking his head not understanding; "What are you talking about?"

"This." Charlie gestured at his head with a sad expression; "Because I'm a genius. Maybe if I had been normal, maybe we would be closer."

"Normal? Charlie just because you're smart doesn't mean you're not normal."

"Yeah well it doesn't always feel like that." Charlie murmured dryly opening his beer and downing a load.

"You're going to have to spell this out for me buddy."

"I took away your childhood Don, took away mom."

"No Charlie!"

"When we were kids, we were close at first. Until mom and dad realised I was gifted. Then I had all these special tutors and got extra attention. And you got less. Then when I started the same school as you, we drifted further apart."

Don opened his mouth but Charlie held up a hand; "No Don it's ok. I know it wasn't easy being at the same school as your younger brother. But worse, mom and dad made you look out for me. You had to take care of me, and yourself. That wasn't fair Don. You had to grow up fast, and that's probably why you're like this."

"I didn't mind taking care of you Charlie, and what do you mean? Like what?" Don said defensively.

"Yes you did Don." Charlie scoffed; "Come on. You made it pretty clear back then how much you wanted to be as far away from me as possible. All I wanted was to hang out with you, but you wanted nothing to do with me. To hang out with your friends."

Shrugging Charlie looked down; "I mean I get it. You were a teenager, you wanted to do normal teenager things. Hang out with your friends, not your little brother. But Don high school sucked for me. Like really sucked. It was bad enough my own brother didn't want to be anywhere near me, but the whole school hated the fact that I was the youngest person there and smarter than them. It was torture Don, kids made my life hell, I had no friends and all I wanted was to be normal so my brother would hang out with me."

Don was left speechless; "You never said anything." He truly had no idea Charlie had it so bad. He always thought it was the contrary, that Charlie had it easy, being so smart and able to figure stuff out so quick. Now he felt even worse, he should have paid more attention.

"What was I going to say Don? Mom and dad already had you looking out for me, if they found out they'd make stand up for me and I didn't want that. I'd already ruined enough of your childhood. Besides, I didn't need you protecting me all the time, I still don't. And I don't want you sacrificing your needs for me. It's already clear how it's impacted you, you never let any one else take care of you, you never talk about your feelings and I just.. I know it's my fault."

"Charlie no it wasn't your fault. Look I know I wasn't the best brother back then." Don leant forward on the table; "The truth was yes, I was jealous of you, the attention you got from mom and dad, the fact that my little brother was so much smarter than me. It really sucked having to live in your little brother's shadow, being reminded every day that I was an idiot."

"You're not an idiot Don! Far from it." Charlie shouted earning a surprised look from Don. Then he smiled dryly at him knowing he was humouring him.

"Sure Chuck."

"No I'm serious Don. Being smart isn't about knowing the most things, or being able to solve maths quicker. You know so much more about the real world than I do, and you're an FBI agent!" Charlie said in exclamation like it was an amazing feat; "That requires real smarts and skills, tracking down bad guys, trying to outsmart them. Strategy, making connections. There's no way I could do what you do, I could never think that way, I don't get people, and I'm no where near as brave as you. I never could be."

Don was amazed, hearing such praise from Charlie. For some reason it meant a whole lot to him.

"Thanks Charlie." Don paused as he looked down at the table realising they had got off topic; "Anyway, I'm sorry Charlie. It was all my fault not yours. I never treated you right. I was envious of you and angry at you for being smarter than me, so I pushed you away. And well it just felt easier and easier to keep pushing you away. I am really really sorry. I'm the one responsible for us drifting apart. I chose a college far far away and never responded to your calls. It was my fault."

"But mom. I abandoned her, and you and dad." Charlie whispered looking fearfully at his bottle, too scared to face his brother; "You all needed me. And I just...I failed all of you. Because I got so wrapped up in some stupid math problem that I couldn't even solve. I wasn't even there when she died." Charlie's voice broke; "That haunts me every day. That I could never say goodbye. That I wasn't there for you and dad through it." He looked up at Don tears in his eyes.

And Don felt some kind of closure about all this. It was really starting to make sense now. He just wish Charlie didn't have to deal with all this alone, he shouldn't have had to face this burden. Poor Charlie.

Don sighed pushing his bottle away and leaning forward on the table to grasp Charlie's arm; "Look yes I was pissed at you for a long time, really pissed about what you did when mom was sick. I didn't get how you wouldn't see her and could see maths as more important. And the way she let it go, saying she understood just made it worse. But I'm not mad anymore." Don smiled at Charlie softly; "I think I get it now. I always thought it was just maths, I mean to me that's all it is. But I understand now it's so much more to you. Like you say math is in everything. So I get that it helped you understand the world, there was so much you couldn't control but maths was something you could control. And you and mom, you were so close. I was jealous of that relationship. Because she got you, and when she got sick it hit you the hardest because she was everything to you. And to face losing her, it was just too much for you. You knew you couldn't make her better, you couldn't control her illness, so you became obsessed with something you could control. Maths. It was how you cope. Just like how you fell back into it when you were worried about me getting shot. I get it Charlie. Seeing you sick, how much of a struggle it was for you. You didn't want to admit you were sick because you couldn't focus, couldn't think. You like to be in control, to find solutions, and when you can't, it's hard for you. It's ok Charlie. I get you know." Don gave him a sloppy grin; "And honestly, I am so glad I do. That I got to know you again. Or I guess I should say got to know you properly."

Don paused as he looked up for a moment a thought hitting him; "Do you remember when you were five? You used to have a lot of nightmares about monsters?"

Charlie's face morphed into bemusement and hesitation; "Yeah you used to check my room for me every night." He grinned; "I remember because at the time I just used to think how brave you were, and kind for not just humouring me like mom and dad. You made me feel safe."

"Yeah well I stopped as I got older because I was tired of doing it, but one night I found you in the bathtub. Hiding. There was a storm, and I know how much you hated those."

"I don't remember that." Charlie furrowed his brow.

"Well I went to pee and just found you sitting in the bathtub, in the dark, with a flashlight. You were terrified. I offered to get mom and dad but you said no, that you weren't a baby. So I offered to check your room for you, and you refused. Wanting to protect me." Don grinned remembering; "So I got you a book to read, and I got in the bathtub with you. You read that book all night before finally falling asleep on me. That's how mom and dad found us the next morning. After that, for some reason you never had another nightmare."

Don shook his head before adding; "But that's when it really hit me, that I hated seeing you scared or hurt, and I would do anything for you Charlie. You're my little brother, and you're everything to me. I love you buddy, and I don't ever want us to drift apart again. I am truly sorry for what's happened to us in the past, it still leaves a pit in my stomach to think about how mean I was to you, and how much I ignored you. I love working with you Charlie, I don't just come see you for your help with cases. In truth, yes I use the cases as an pretence to see you, but that's just because I guess I'm afraid to just come and admit I like hanging out with you."

"I...I had no idea." Charlie didn't know what else to say. His brain just shut down, overloaded with all this information.

"Yeah well.." Don sighed heavily, this was really difficult for him to admit. He didn't like talking about himself; "You're right about me. I've worked really hard to try and measure up to you Charlie. I knew I never could compete with your accomplishments but I tried. Becoming an FBI agent I supposed was the complete opposite of your work and maybe the closest I could get. It's silly really now I think about it, there's me trying to measure up to you, and you've been helping on my cases just to get me to like you. Because you thought I hated you."

"Well maybe not hated but..." Charlie trailed off shrugging feeling silly now.

"It's not easy for me to talk about my feelings Charlie." Don admitted reluctantly; "In this line of work, you see a lot of horrible, terrifying things. And you have to find a way to cope with it or it will eat you up inside. For me, I lock it all away and don't think about it. Maybe not the best way, but it works for me. I love working with you at the FBI, but I don't ever want you to be like that Charlie. To have to deal with what I do. I know you're not a kid anymore, and you don't need protecting, but as your brother I'll always protect you. It's just my job. So you're just going to have to accept that."

"I'll accept it if you accept that I'm going to protect you too." Charlie tried confidently; "It still terrifies me thinking of you getting shot at every day."

"Well not every day. But fine." Don corrected before refocusing; "But the point is, I need you to know how important you are to me. You and dad. You're the most important people in my life, and that's why I come here so much. It's nice to be able to have someone to come home too sometimes, especially after a rough day. And well my apartment just isn't the same. You're my brother Charlie, I love you and I truly admire and respect you, everything that you've done. All you've accomplished and achieved, I know you've worked hard for everything. And that's the truth."

Charlie just stared at Don for a moment, making Don gulp self consciously. There he'd laid it all out on the table. It was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do, but he felt so much better for it. Like a weight had been lifted, and there were no more secrets between them.

He just hoped Charlie could move on from this.

Then Charlie smiled from ear to ear; "I love you too Don. Thank you for saying all that. It means a lot."

"Yeah well it should have been said a long time ago. There's been too much tension and bad blood between us in the past, in the future I want us to be better. So no more secrets, no more competitions or trying to get the other to like them. How about now we just try being brothers again?"

Charlie nodded; "I'd really like that."

Don stood up and sensing where this was going, Charlie stood up too. And Don hugged Charlie. Probably for the first time in over twenty years.

Charlie smiled, hugging him back. Feeling like a huge weight was lifted. He finally had the old Don back. His brother.

Sitting back down, smiling, Charlie lifted up his beer to Don silently.

Smiling back, Don clinked his beer to Charlie's feeling like the future now looked a whole lot brighter. As long as Don and Charlie had each other, they could face anything.


	13. Epilogue

"I'm telling you Charlie, anomaly only has one O." Don said chuckling as he took a sip of his beer, watching as Charlie glared down at the scrabble board between them.

After their intense conversation to clear the air, Don and Charlie agreed to just hang out like brothers. No talking about work, no talking about math.

And well Scrabble seemed like a good idea.

Now Charlie wasn't so sure.

"I used that word every day at work!" Charlie challenged; "I know how it's spelt."

"Clearly not buddy." Don leant back down to rest his forearms on his legs as he stared at his tiles and the board; "Now come on just pick another word so I can take my go."

"No I want to check a dictionary. I know this is how it's spelt."

Sighing amused, Don just leant back and waved his hands; "Go ahead buddy. Five bucks says I'm right."

"You're on!" Charlie pointed at him jumping up and racing to the bookshelf. Just after the front door opened.

"Dad hey!" Don said cheerfully smiling at him as he readjusted his letters; "How was the date?"

"Good. Fine." Alan replied hesitantly refusing to give away any answers. Then he walked further into the room eyeing the scrabbled board and Charlie and Don; "Oh you're playing Scrabble."

"Well trying to, but Charlie's cheating." Don teased and Charlie glared at him.

"I am not cheating. Dad!" He turned to him pleadingly gesturing at the board; "Tell Don that is how you spell anomaly right?"

Alan peered at the board and shook his head; "Sorry Charlie. There's only one O in anomaly."

"What? No I know how to spell..." Charlie trailed off as he found the right page and then the word.

Seeing Charlie's face, Don grinned clapping his hands together; "That's five bucks you owe me Chuck."

Snapping the book closed, Charlie rolled his eyes; "Yeah yeah whatever." He turned back to the board pulling back his letters.

Alan watched them amused as he sat down between the two of them watching.

"Hey dad you want to play?" Don said leaving Charlie to spew for a minute.

"Yeah sure." Alan slipped off his jacket and pulled out a scrabble tray and picked some letters.

Charlie lay down some new letters spelling HOT.

"Really Charlie? Hot." Don scoffed.

"Hey that's on a triple word tile so that's 27 points thank you very much."

"Alright hey way to go buddy." Don said grinning.

Alan smirked and Don turned to him amused.

"Hey what's so funny?"

"Nothing it's just well I mean here are my two sons, home on a Friday night playing scrabble, and their father just came home from a date. It's just funny."

"I think that was a subtle hint to hurry up and get married already." Charlie murmured to Don, who made a sound of agreement.

"Well I'm not getting married anytime soon but I do alright." Don reasoned and Charlie raised an eyebrow; "Hey I do."

"Yeah well so do I." Charlie defended.

"You mean your one date with Amita?"

Charlie glared at Don; "It's your go and I'm going to be checking the spelling.""

"Alright alright here we go would you look at that!" Don cheered as he put down letters to make up the Zoology. And the Y was on the triple word tile; "That's 60 points."

Alan whistled and even Charlie looked impressed.

"Well done Don." Charlie murmured looking at him with a small smile.

"Thanks Chuck."

Charlie didn't complain at him calling him Chuck, just merely smiled which made Don smile. He may have grumbled about the whole anomaly thing, but truthfully this was the most fun Charlie had had in a long time. He may love his work, but he loved hanging out with his family more. Maybe the whole taking breaks thing wasn't so bad.

"Alright dad your go." Don said patting his arm before reaching for his beer.

He couldn't help the grin that formed as he watched Charlie trying to read through the dictionary and look at his letters, and then at his father as he was talking to Charlie.

He loved them both more than anything, and couldn't imagine a better way to spend his evening. Yeah he could be out dating some woman, but this was way more fun. And now he'd cleared the air with Charlie, it was nice to hang out with his brother again.

He planned on doing it a lot more in the future.

He may have told Charlie that locking away all his emotions was how he coped with the horrors of his job, but it was actually this. Coming home to his family is what kept him going. Kept him grounded. And that's all he needed.

**THE END.**


End file.
